EUROCALL'95 AUTHORS

A GENERIC DOMAIN MODEL FOR AN IMPERATIVE PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES TUTOR

Bedir Tekinerdogan, Jeroen J. G. van Merriënboer, Hein P.M. Krammer
and Marcel J. Schonewille
University of Twente, The Netherlands

ITSSEL (Intelligent Tutoring Shell System for Executable Languages) is a tutoring shell system for imperative programming languages. Each generated intelligent tutoring system (ITS) in the ITSSEL system is composed of an instruction model, a domain model and a student model. In order to use the shell as a test bed for instructional experimentations the instruction model and the domain model are highly orthogonal to each other.

This paper describes the design of the domain model which represents the programming knowledge to be taught. The programming knowledge is represented by abstract programming plans provided in a reusable and extensible framework. The generic problem specification language (PSL) is used to define problems with multiple student solutions. Problems and feedback specifications can be easily added after the ITS has been built (application level). This provides the knowledge engineer a high level of flexibility in composing a specific course.

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THE USE OF PARALLEL CONCORDANCING FOR LITERARY AND LINGUISTIC TEXT ANALYSIS

Gordon Burgess
University of Aberdeen
and
Jànos Kohn
Berzsenyi Dániel College, Szombathely, Hungary

Computer-generated concordances of large text corpora in the target language have found increasing use in classroom-based language tuition. This paper reports on workshops help at Dániel Berzsenyi College in Hungary in May and November 1994 in which small groups of participants used a concordancing package (MicroConcord) to analyse specific literary texts simultaneously in the original language (German) and in a published translation (Hungarian). Through a process of contrastive analysis of the original and translated texts, the participants arrived at a set of results which threw light of linguistic (and thus literary) features of both the original and the translated versions.

This paper will cover the following topics: the choice of texts for analysis; setting up and modus operandi of the workshops; using one language to highlight the other; results obtained; planned developments for the future. The paper will be given in English. A knowledge of German and/or Hungarian will not be required of the audience.

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BITS2: THE INTRODUCTION OF CALL IN 50 SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN BRUSSELS: STRATEGY, IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS

Jan De Baere
Vlaamse Gemeenschapscomissie Education

Overview of the BITS2 project, an acronym that stands for «Brussels Impulse for Technology and Software at School». This project is an initiative of the Educational service of the «Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie» (Flemish Community Government of Brussels, Belgium) and promotes the introduction of CALL and the authoring system P.A.R.A.D.I.S.E. (Dutch, French and English) in 50 Dutch-speaking secondary schools in Brussels. After a short presentation of the multilingual situation of Brussels and the characteristics of P.A.R.A.D.I.S.E, special attention will be paid to:

1. The strategy used by the BITS2 Team (consisting of two specialists in language teaching and a computer scientist) to introduce the courseware.

2. The training of the users of the authoring system.

3. The contact with the users of the software: language-teachers and their pupils.

4. The implementation of the courseware in the existing curriculum. Links with the existing teaching materials (handbooks and courses) and strategies for differentiation and remediation.

5. The results after one year.

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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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THE APPLICATION OF LEARNING STRATEGIES IN MULTIMEDIA COURSEWARE WITH THE FOCUS ON THE LISTENING SKILL

Cristina Ros i Solé
Strathclyde University, Glasgow

Many theories of second language acquisition have based their views on the fact that listening input is paramount to the development of linguistic knowledge. On the other hand, current views in applied linguistics have shifted the focus from teaching to learning and the mental processing involved in it. This change of stress on the learning process has brought about an increase of interest in learning strategies. Although the language teaching profession is already applying all these assumptions in the classroom context, the integration of learning strategies to foster the acquisition of the whole spectrum of the listening skills is under-researched in the CALL environment; despite the fact that researchers claim that awareness of learning strategies makes good language learners.

This paper will analyse the ways in which learning strategies applied to the listening skill can be implemented in the development of CALL materials. For such purposes a theoretical framework will be provided to evaluate to which extent existing materials incorporate strategies that promote the learner's cognitive processes. The multimedia computer, as a tool that can handle individual language practice, has a lot of potential for this type of reflective learning.

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«TASK» AS ORGANISING PRINCIPLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF «COMMUNICATIVE» CALL

Miranda Stewart
Strathclyde University, Glasgow

One of the remits of the TELL (Technology Enhanced Language Learning) Consortium has been to provide materials to complement the ab initio courses increasingly taught as part of institution-wide «languages for all» programmes. A crucial problem for materials designers is posed by the range of courses and approaches adopted in the Higher Education sector with curricula being structured along grammatical, functional-notional, situational and, increasingly, communicative lines for a wide variety of academic, social and professional purposes.
This paper will examine how the notion of «task» (Nunan, 1989, etc.) has been adopted in the design of a Spanish course aimed at enabling students engaged in autonomous learning to integrate, consolidate and extend material covered within these disparate courses. It will also explore the extent to which it is possible to incorporate a communicative dimension (both in terms of the conception of language underlying the course (see Canale and Swain, 1980) and in terms of student interaction with the course material) in the design of such materials. While traditionally CALL has shown itself most successful in allowing students both to practise their command of foreign language lexis and syntax and to build a declarative knowledge of the language system studied, the advent of more powerful computers and, consequently, the opportunity to provide true multimedia workstations (incorporating audio and video output) presents a new challenge: to what extent can CALL enable students to interact meaningfully with authentic multimedia language materials?