A VOCABULARY WORBENCH FOR LANGUGE LEARNERS AND TEACHERS



Reza Ahmadi and Maria Klijn-Wuisman
Delft University of Technology

Margriet Jagtman
University of Nijmegen

WOORD is a language-independent CALL application. It is a vocabulary workbench for teachers and learners of foreign languages which consists of a text database, a lexical database, and an exercise component. Teachers can read new texts into WOORD and add new words to the lexical database. They can also use WOORD to construct computer aided vocabulary exercises based on semantic selection criteria. Students can read texts and receive instant information on «unknown» words in the form of translations, paraphrases, or context in which the words occur. In addition they can do vocabulary exercises.
WOORD can be used by students as a tool to facilitate the reading of texts and vocabulary learning. Teachers can use WOORD to get insight into the effect of students using a dictionary while reading a text. For example, they can provide students with different kinds of information on words in order to study which information is the most helpful in understanding texts. They can also use WOORD to study vocabulary learning.
In this paper we will describe WOORD and indicate how it can be used for the purposes mentioned above. In addition we will discuss some preliminary findings about WOORD's effect in an L2 Dutch summer course at Delft University in The Netherlands.

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INTEGRATING CALL IN THE NEGOTIATED LEARNER-CENTRED CURRICULUM: A CASE STUDY



Françoise Blin and Diana Wilson
School of Applied Languages, Dublin City University

The adoption of a negotiated learner-centred curriculum in a university settings presents many implications regarding the choice of materials and media which will enable learning to take place. Materials must be varied in order to respond to learners' needs and preferred learning styles. They must also present the learner with activities and tasks that will enable them to achieve the objectives set both by the curriculum and by himself/herself. While such a curriculum can be enhanced by the use of new technologies, these must be continuously monitored and evaluated so that students can be provided with adequate learning resources. Learners also need to be guided in their choice of materials so that the learning outcome can be maximised.
This paper intends firstly, to describe the decision process regarding the selection of appropriate materials by students in the case of a French for Business course delivered through a semi-autonomous mode of instruction, and secondly, to analyse the outcome of this process. Finally, conclusions will be drawn regarding ways of improving the process.

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A PROPOSED METHODOLOGY FOR CALL IN L.S.P.



Philippe Delcloque
Napier University, Edinburgh

Very little work has been done in CALL for Languages for Specific Purposes. In my view, this is due to a number of factors: 1) L.S.P. is a relatively new field of research and teaching activity; 2) Content specialists are rarely aware of modern CALL; 3) The potential market is perceived as very small due to specialisation and the degree of L.S.P. tuition; 4) The variety of skills and expertise required for CALL production in L.S.P. is even greater than in general CALL.
The author will present a number of examples (Hospitality and Tourism, Nursing studies) produced by his team of linguists and multimedia specialists over the past eighteen months. He will also explain how Information Technology is used to the full to analyse lexical and grammatical data and classify it, to process needs and functions and key post analyses and, finally, to assemble text, still pictures, animation and edited video. The author will also explain the increasing role of machine intelligence in this process. He will describe how the work is organised and documented to allow for fluctuations in team membership and how results in L.S.P. can be achieved by linguists working in isolation with more modest hardware and software tools.
To conclude, the author intends to show that L.S.P. could play a greater role in the future of CALL because it forces any producer into effective pluridisciplinary research and does not enter in commercial competition with companies producing General Language Software.

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STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTING AND WIDENING CALL IN THE ACADEMIC CURRICULUM




Paul .J. Donnelly
Department of Hispanic Studies, University of Glasgow

This paper arises from work in the Department of Hispanic Studies as part of the institutionally funded TLTP project at Glasgow University, the TILT project. Rather than presenting a narrative of software creation it will concentrate on the strategic view behind the experience of implementing CALL within a range of courses in a department with a view to suggesting principles of best practice for the implementation and integration of CALL.
The paper will point to ways in which CALL can be encouraged to grow from being a supplement to coursework done to being a fully integrated component of a course. It will look at establishing teams to generate or adapt courseware and to implement it. Team-teaching solutions will be considered in this context. Consideration will be paid to decisions over the feasibility of software options ranging from basic text programs to multimedia, with emphasis laid on the need for realism in terms of staffing, equipment and course aims.
The need to target classes and levels and the function of CALL within them will be explored along with issues such as evaluation. Problems in widening the knowledge base to other colleagues will be addressed along with resource issues wider than mere staffing costs to resolve them. This factor is seen as crucial for the widening the place of CALL within the curriculum.

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NTCI Y ENSEÑANZA DE IDIOMAS: DISEÑO CURRICULAR Y NUEVAS TECNOLOGÍAS



Laura García Vitoria and André Loechel
France Telecom, Paris

La introducción de las nuevas tecnologías en el aprendizaje de idiomas lleva consigo importantes cambios de los papeles tradicionales de los aprendices y de los formadores. Estos cambios son reales y constituyen un verdadero motor que dinamiza el aprendizaje y aumenta su eficacia. No se trata de emplear unas simples adaptaciones pedagógicas del modelo tradicional, sino de realizar verdaderos cambios en el acto formador.
La integración de las nuevas tecnologías en la pedagogía de idiomas no es una cuestión de moda, tampoco trata de sustituir al profesorado y formadores por no se qué combinación de máquinas y soportes lógicos de programación. Esta integración tiene como objetivo encontrar soluciones a medida de las necesidades de formación en lenguas extranjeras. Encontrar soluciones creativas que integren efectivamente y eficazmente: directivos de compra de servicios y materiales multimedia, profesores, formadores y aprendices.
Las NTIC, en tanto que herramientas pedagógicas, al servicio de la formación, dan lugar a la tecnología educativa. Será pues, necesario examinar cómo estas herramientas son susceptibles de ponerse al servicio de los objetivos fijados por la educación y la formación.
En este congreso presentaremos y analizaremos: 1) El Proyecto de teleenseñanza interactiva en tiempo real y diferido SYNTAGMA 3. 2)«Cuestión de Negocios-Negociar en Español» (producto resultado del Proyecto SYNTAGMA 3, que, en su primera versión, fue adaptado a la interactividad de la enseñanza a distancia en tiempo real por satélite (ETSIT) y en un entorno de redes locales e internacionales interactivas en tiempo diferido (NEWSPEAK, INTERNET).

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THE TEXT ANALYSIS PROGRAM: MOVING CLOSER TO THE COMPUTER-BASED LANGUAGE CLASSROOM



John H. Gillespie and Jane McKee
School of Languages and Literature, University of Ulster at Coleraine

1. History and Development of Program
The paper will begin with a brief history of the Text Analysis Program, development of which began as part of a languages CTI from 1987-89. Full development was initiated in March 1993 as part of the work of the «tools team» of the TELL consortium.
2. Description of Program
The program is part of a language workstation project with three functions for working with texts operating at different levels: textual analysis, glossary development and grammatical analysis. Only the first two are being considered in this paper.
3. Prototyping
The development of the present version will then be described in terms of programming, specification and evaluation. The formative evaluation tests are being carried out as an integral part of a number of different modules with groups of students at all levels of ability and development, from service courses, to honours degree, to MA level on three different campuses of the University of Ulster.
4. Procedures
Each class has constant access to a large Macintosh lab of LCIIs or higher. The procedures involved in these tests (preparation, pre-testing, program running, program tweaking, evaluation of and by students and by staff) will be described.
5. Focus of investigation
The investigation's central focus is the degree of learning enhancement of textual analysis for the development of language, style, and content provided by the use of a computer-based program. We also consider classroom atmosphere and procedures, modes of assessment and teaching styles. The relationship between class use, independent learning and coursework assessment is also surveyed.
6. Results of investigation
The results of our investigations will be presented and the resulting enhancements to the functionality of the final C++ version of the program described.
7. Conclusion
The testing referred to above will take place between 6th February and 26th May. Previous, more limited, investigations of student reaction have been positive in relation to both learning enhancement and teaching atmosphere but less so in relation to the computing environment.

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A USER INTERFACE TO INTEGRATE SPEECH AUDIO-FEEDBACK IN CALL SYSTEMS


P. Gómez Vilda, V. Rodellar, J. Bobadilla, J. Beltrán,
A. Álvarez, F. Rubio, N. Mayo, M. Pérez and V. Nieto
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

The development of Speech Processing Techniques is reaching a state in which common Speech Recognition Techniques for Isolated Word Recognition may be incorporated in Personal Computers. This possibility is especially interesting for Computer-Aided Language Learning Systems, as it may enhance the features of these systems, not only allowing them to incorporate Speech Reproduction, but also true Speech Interaction, i. e., the system may react to speech issued by the student in a variety of ways: Identifying Token Words to stimulate certain reactions, as for example Word Spotting (in elision exercises), or Identifying Speech Features, to issue correcting hints, or Detecting Intonation Patterns, to render the microphone a pointing device in an x-y screen. Special aim is placed in describing the design of a suitable User Interface for such purposes.
The pedagogical use of such User Interface is explored and commented. The hardware and software requirements for such techniques to be applicable within current CALL software are also analysed.

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THE LANGUAGE LEARNER AND THE COMPUTER: WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON IN THERE? INTERPRETED RESULTS FROM A VOCABULARY-LEARNING PROGRAM




Robin Goodfellow
Aston University, Birmingham

The potential role for CALL as a tool for language acquisition research has been the subject of much discussion. It has been argued on the one hand, that learning programs could be developed into «detailed and sophisticated assessment instruments» providing data to be used in the evaluation of theories of language learning (Garret 1993). Also, on the other hand, that programs should be designed to model the linguistic knowledge of learners and experts directly, as intelligent tutoring systems attempt to do (Matthews 1994). What use CALL can really be in helping us to understand learners, is, however, unlikely to be resolved by discussion of principles alone. To interpret the data that comes out of an interaction between a language learner and a computer, whether we start or end up with a theory of language acquisition, we first need to understand something about the interaction itself. We need to know, for example, how far the measures of success incorporated into the program, reflect the objectives the learner has been pursuing. We need to know whether the focus of the activity as the program designer intends it, is actually what the learner perceives. We need to know how far the outcome of the interaction as represented in any model the program maintains, reflects the outcome as the learner experiences it.
These questions are complex ones and are best addressed through the experimental analysis of real data from learners interacting with learning programs. To illustrate some of the more promising approaches to such interpretation, I will use qualitative and quantitative results from recent case studies involving English university students using a specially developed CALL program to learn Spanish vocabulary. I will try to show that the learners' conscious approach to the task is a significant factor in the learning outcome, and should therefore be taken into account in any discussion of underlying processes of language acquisition.

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DE TUDO UM POUCO... E MAIS UM POUCO: A YEAR PILOTING INTEGRATED TEXTBOOK AND COMPUTER COURSEWARE FOR PORTUGUESE



Mike Harland
Department of Hispanic Studies, University of Glasgow

This talk will describe the issues involved in designing computer courseware for use with a textbook specifically written to enable integration. The example used will be a new course for teaching students on a one year crash course in Portuguese. It aims to show how its modular elements permit multiple use of both text and computer materials, allowing them to be adapted to other levels and styles of learning. It also describes the snags encountered and the wisdom of adopting an easily editable format for both computer and textbook materials.

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THE INTERNET AS A LANGUAGE LEARNING RESOURCE


William Haworth
School of Modern Languages, Liverpool John Moores University

Before the language teaching world has had time to come fully to terms with the exploitation of CALL and its integration into the curriculum, the next wave is forming. This is based around the possibilities opened up by resources and activities accessed over the Internet.
The Internet has reached «critical mass» in terms of usability, mainly through the development of the World Wide Web and easy-to-use browsers such as Netscape.
This paper describes a number of specific areas which offer something to the language learner/teacher, and then presents some of the consequences of the impact on the learning environment. The procedural aspects and technicalities of Internet use are avoided in favour of examples which show actual interaction.

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THE USE OF VISUAL BASIC AS A CALL DEVELOPMENT TOOL: THE PRODUCTION AND REFINEMENT OF GRAMEX AND GRAMDEF


Paul Hickman and Paul Langdon
LSU College of Higher Education

The TELL Consortium has placed a high priority on the development of dedicated CALL software for use in university language departments throughout the United Kingdom. The GramEx and GramDef tutorial programs respond to a widespread need amongst British students for consolidation, rationalisation and expansion of their base knowledge of foreign language grammar. Over the three year development period, software has been produced for French, German, Spanish and Italian.
Visual Basic was chosen for the coding of the programs. Authoring languages such as Toolbook, Guide and Authorware were rejected as they did not permit the fine string handling and window control offered by a true high level language. Core code modules for tasks common to many exercises and a base window format give a generic feel to each program. However, the code for each exercise and the detail of the screen interface are specifically adapted to the characteristics of each language and grammar topic covered.
User response is elicited in a range of ways which fully exploit the current possibilities of the environment: clickable command buttons, option buttons, «hot» text areas and list boxes. Branching patterns within the code allow flexible feedback to learner input, customised according to the grammatical and syntactic properties of a particular example.
Formal formative evaluation has led to enhancement of the functionality of the programs in response to student feedback. Generally, however, the material has been well received by users because of the immediate and comprehensible feedback it provides and its ease of use.

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HOLOGRAM: INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT FOR GRAMMAR TEACHING AND LEARNING


Sake Jager
Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen

This paper describes Hologram, a fully interactive environment for grammar teaching and learning, currently being developed at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Hologram is an authoring system specifically geared to university-level grammar teaching. It offers easily adaptable templates for gap-filling, drag-and-drop and multiple-choice exercises, an interactive hypertext editor, and student tracking facilities across the network. The exercises are linked into the hypertext to provide maximum feedback and background information to specific grammar points.
A primary objective of the Hologram project has been to put the production of high-level grammar courseware directly into the hands of non-programming language experts. We are currently implementing versions for English, Spanish, French, German and Russian.
The program is written in Multimedia Toolbook 3.0, so that multimedia extensions can be provided.

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INTEGRATION OF CALL & TELL INTO THE CURRICULUM OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES AT AMSTERDAM POLYTECHNIC


Ton Koet
Amsterdam Polytechnic

Some ten years ago our department started with a number of drill and practice programmes, mainly for vocabulary learning. Although these programmes were extremely popular with our students, who kept clamouring for more, CALL and Tell did not become an integral part of the curriculum until 1990. In this year compulsory IT courses were introduced providing all 1st-year students in our faculty with the necessary computer literacy and word-processing skills. From this moment onwards it has been our policy to ask students to use the computer in as many activities as possible. In our enthusiasm we may have gone too far; compulsory «self access» of 2 hours per week did not prove a success without proper guidance –as it had under the guidance of qualified staff– and scheduled computer time has actually been reduced. We now focus on the quality of CALL & TELL activities. In writing courses there is an integration of word processing skills and language skills. CALL is more directly linked to specific courses where, for example, computer administered dictation exercises are found useful. With our move to a new building we hope to be able to take full advantage of telematics in our CALL and TELL activities.

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METHODOLOGICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR CALL APPLICATIONS


Liliana Landolfi
Faculty of Modern Languages and Literatures
Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples

It is more than two decades that computers have first appeared in the field of education (Brumfit, Phillips and Skehan 1985, Denley et al. 1989) and since then a conspicuous number of papers and books have been published. Literature on CALL has illustrated the qualities and the advantages that computers offer (Ahmad et al. 1985, Higgins 1988, etc.), indicated the improvements that learners derive from computer-assisted materials (Coleman 1991, Higgins 1988, etc.), suggested the advantages that teachers obtain (Brierly and Kemble 1991, Laurillard 1993), and offered some reports on the implementation of CALL in more traditionally-oriented curricula (Scrimshaw 1993).
Unfortunately, however, literature on CALL has rarely dealt with methodology-oriented issues (Bedfors 1991, Chapelle 1990, Kibby 1990, Light 1993) and has been of little help with practical factors (Evelyn and Oliver 1987, Moore 1986). This has created confusion in the minds of those people who design educational software with the result that the computer has often been misused, its capacities have been limited to routinized activities and old fashioned materials have been produced; materials that focus on practising the target language rather than on understanding the meanings it conveys. Confusion has also been experienced by computer users who feel like being thrown back to audio-lingual times and who would like to know more about: a) when to implement CALL courses; b) how to integrate CALL packages within on-going syllabi and pre-existing curricula; c) what to do when commercially available software partially fulfils the audience's needs, and d) which criteria to follow when creating ad hoc computerised materials.
The present paper investigates these issues and aims at offering some methodological and practical suggestions based both on the results gathered during several staff-training courses on CALL applications at university level and on those collected after the implementation of a specific CALL course at the Faculty of Modern Languages and Literatures, Istituto Universitario Orientale, Naples.

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INTEGRATING CALL: THE TUTOR AND THE TOOL


Michael Levy
The University of Queensland

Proper integration of CALL is critical for its ultimate success (Rüschoff 1984; Farrington 1986, p. 199; Garrett 1991, p. 42; and Robinson 1991, p. 160).
In the tutorial tradition, the problem reduces to deciding what work should be completed at the computer and what work should be completed away from it. There is a separateness between CALL and non-CALL work. This separateness extends from the logical to the physical dimension and would usually result in the computers in one space, a laboratory or self-access centre, and a classroom without computers, but with a teacher in another.
In the tradition of the computer as tool, logical and physical integration pose different problems. Logically, there need be no division of labour as such because of the complementary nature of human and tool. From the logical point of view, the question is not how best can language work be divided between human and machine, but how best can language work be combined so as to provide optimal conditions when human and machine work co-operatively.
This paper discusses the implications of the tutor and tool roles of the computer for integrating CALL into the curriculum. An example of integrating CALL into a communicative writing course follows.

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A DBASE IV APPLICATION FOR THE TEACHING OF SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS TO STUDENTS OF ENGLISH AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL


Mª Dolores López Maestre
Universidad de Murcia

The purpose of this paper is to show how CALL software can be used in the teaching of basic syntactic analysis of English sentences to students of English at university level. We shall report on the programme in Dbase IV (successive screens, it is classified as a «simple», «complex» or «compound» sentence or as a verbless structure, then its internal structure is analysed by looking at the sentence functions it contains as well as the type of phrase or clause it is made up of. Later, the internal structure of these phrases or clauses is also analysed both in functional as well as in formal terms. The analysis is continued, in this way, until the word level is reached.
The facility will present the student with a sentence on the screen and, then, he/she will be asked to carry out the analysis. Once he/she has finished he/she will either proceed or compare his/her analysis with the lecturer´s to see possible mistakes. The correction will be done after each individual sentence or at the end of the working period. In fact, the application is intended to be a computerized workbook to be used on a self-access basis.
Furthermore, the programme will also be useful for lecturers particularly in the setting of exams, as one of its advantages is that it automatises the correction process and it can also provide information about troublesome areas. Another advantage of our application is that the computer allows the student to have access to hypertext and multimedia facilities, such as: consulting class-notes for explanations and reviewing; the use of dictionaries; the possibility of using audio facilities and (if a CD-ROM is installed) the use of encyclopaedias, bibliographic material, etc.

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