A COMPUTERISED SELF-ACCESS COURSE FOR BEGINNERS IN INTERPRETING



Doug Thompson, Donatella de Ferra, Emanuela Cervato and Raffaela Merlini
University of Hull

This paper will discuss the diverse pedagogical circumstances in which such an application may be used, whether by students who are training to become professional interpreters or by general language students who are seeking to improve a range of practical language skills to a high level of competence, as well as their overall linguistic awareness. The paper will include substantial demonstration of the program's numerous, fully interactive oral and written facilities, as well as the module which gives practice/tuition in note taking.
This application is one of more than twenty being developed by the Language-Handling Tools section of the TELL Consortium of 32 British Universities, under the auspices of the British Government's Teaching and Learning Technology Programme. Most of the applications being developed in this section (headed by Professor Thompson) are concerned with different aspects of translation (including specialised dictionaries, a translator's workstation, customised grammars and advanced-level translation courses in five European languages). InterprIt , the subject of the proposed paper, is believed to be the first program of its kind developed to assist interpreters in the early stages of their training.

Back to previous page.



GETTING CALL STARTED IN A SPANISH POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY




Edmund Turney, Cristina Pérez Guillot, Luz Gil Salom, Carmen Soler Monreal,
Begoña Montero Fleta and Carmen Pérez Sabater
Universidad Politécnica de Valencia

Our demonstration illustrates the difficult but challenging process of starting to integrate CALL into the curriculum in the University School of Computer Science at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. The demonstration illustrates some of the developmental stages of the project.
The initial phase was devoted to the development of text-based software aimed at solving specific problems in the learning process. These problems had been identified in informal interviews with students who were having special difficulties with English. The first programs were extremely simple programs, written in Turbo Pascal, mainly concerned with questions of vocabulary (word formation, technical vocabulary and the core vocabulary of academic English).
The following stage involved the development of more complex programs to teach and/or practice specific points of the lexico-grammatical system of English which were posing problems for the students (the use and meaning of modal verbs, verb complementation, phrasal and prepositional verbs).
A number of programs were then developed to practice general points of grammar (the tense system, the article system, the noun phrase, prepositions, connectors, etc.).
In these initial stages the software was designed to be used for self-study. In the next phase, programs were developed to be used in the computer laboratory as a part of the teaching program. These programs initially reviewed language points that had already been dealt with in class. At the moment, programs are also being developed to teach and practice language points in an attempt to devote less classroom time to formal language teaching so as to dedicate more time to skill based activities.
At present, skill-based programs are being developed with the help of students who need to present a Project to finish their studies in the School of Computer Science. These programs incorporate sound and graphics.

Back to previous page.



HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY E-MAIL WRITING PROJECT




Ruth Vilmi
Helsinki University of Technology

Foreign language writing students need authentic audiences for developing their strategies for effective writing. This paper describes an ongoing international writing project which brings students of universities in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America together via the Internet so that they can share their insights and assist one another in writing in English on academic and technical topics.
The project, which I started in autumn 1993, has developed into six electronic mail writing courses. I shall describe the three courses which were organised at HUT Language Centre in autumn '94: the Individual Writing Exchange, and two international, task-based team activities, the Robot Activity and the Environment Activity. A special e-mail news group was created for the Individual Writing Exchange, which provided a flexible forum for the discussions on sixteen different subjects, involving between 150 to 200 students of many nationalities.

Back to previous page.



USING E-MAIL TANDEM WORK FOR LEARNING LANGUAGES




J. Woodin
University of Sheffield
and
A. Ojanguren
Universidad de Oviedo

This paper will look at the use of E-Mail Tandem learning for non-specialist learners of Spanish on the Institution-Wide Language Programme at Sheffield University and non-specialist learners of English at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Industrial e Ingeniería Informática at Oviedo University. The following points will be addressed:
A history and description of the Tandem network of which Sheffield and Oviedo are part.
An analysis of the current situation in both universities regarding Tandem e-mail, with successes and difficulties to date.
Ideas for future developments from an organisational and methodological point of view.
Points to note when setting up Tandem e-mail in other institutions.

Back to previous page.



THE CONCEPTUAL DICTIONARY IN COMPUTER ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING




B. Nkwenti-Azeh, M.J. Hamel, and C. Zähner
Department of Language and Linguistics, UMIST

This paper discusses the design and implementation of a French and German on-line dictionary for use in CALL environments. These dictionaries are not simply intended as reference tools but as aides in the student's vocabulary acquisition process. The relationship of the learner's mental lexicon and the on-line dictionary is an important focus of this work. The first part of the paper addresses issues raised in this context and looks at the solutions adopted by the TELL dictionary project.
The second part of the paper discusses the use of the dictionary in the context of other CALL applications and ways of integrating the dictionary effectively and productively into the language learning process as a whole.

Back to previous page.