2007年10月31日星期三

Focus on WorldCALL 2008

Keynote Speakers

  1. Vera Menezes

CALL: a strange attractor in language education in South America


 

Under the assumption that language education is a chaotic system by its very nature, this presentation seeks to reflect upon the 10-year history of computer assisted language learning in the light of chaos theory metaphors. Throughout my presentation I will be talking about language education systems and about technology as an element thereof, though other elements such as educational policies, curriculum, language teaching and learning experiences play equally vital roles.
 Learning a foreign language in South America is by no means an easy task as there are usually few opportunities for learners to interact with speakers of languages other than Spanish and Portuguese. Technology has always been the main element to bridge the distance between learners and speakers of other tongues in our continent.
Like all complex systems, language education is an open system and new elements, such as new technology tools, interact with the other elements of such a system, influencing them while they are in turn influenced by them.
The history of foreign language teaching has shown us that the normal route of the language educational system has suffered unexpected changes along its path: from codex and gramophones to computers and the Internet. But the impact of the Internet seems to have caused the strongest turbulence.  The educational system has been destabilized evolving into a strange attractor, creating new bridges spanning the globe. The trajectory of an attractor never repeats itself and that is precisely what has been happening with CALL. It is impossible to predict its future route, although its impact can be likened to the advent of the printing press
We cannot close our eyes to inequalities, though. This new digital route has created a digital divide increasing the gap between privileged and underprivileged learners, while educational policies keep trying to offer equal opportunities to the underprivileged.


 

Vera Menezes, PhD in Linguistics and one of the pioneers of CALL in Brazil, is a full professor of English and Applied Linguistics at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, one of the most important universities in Brazil. She also assists Brazilian government and non-governmental educational organizations with their efforts to improve curriculum and university language education in Brazil. She is a former president of ALAB (Brazilian Association of Applied Linguistics) and of APLIEMGE (Teachers of English Association of Minas Gerais State). She has edited several books and published papers in Brazil and abroad. Her publications include:

  • In press. Investigating  interaction in an EFL online environment. Handbook of Research on E-Learning Methodologies for Language Acquisition. Idea Group.
  • Tearing down walls and building up a collaborative learning community. MEXTESOL Journal. 29(2): 21-36, 2005;
  • Feedback in the virtual environment. PsychNology. 1(3): 257-283, 2003; and
  • CALL and online journals. In Debski, R. & Levy, M. (Eds.) WorldCALL: Global perspectives on Computer-Assisted Language Learning. (pp. 249-265). The Netherlands: Swets & Zeitlinger, 1999.

She is the editor of the Brazilian Applied Linguistics Journal and the coordinator of AMFALE, an international research project on language learning histories, in collaboration with several researchers from Brazil, Finland and Japan. This group is building an online data bank with narratives, including narrators regarding learning foreign languages in different contexts. Her most recent project aims at investigating chaos/complexity and metaphors in language learning multimedia narratives.


 

  1. Stephen Bax

    Bridges, chopsticks and shoelaces: normalising computers and computer technologies in language classrooms

    How can we use computer technology better in our daily work as language educators?

    In my earlier research and writing (e.g. Bax 2003; Chambers & Bax 2006) I have argued that if we are to benefit fully from the range of exciting possibilities which computers and computer technologies offer to us as language teachers, we need to move towards what I term 'normalisation', which is the situation when these technologies are used in our daily classroom work as naturally as a whiteboard or a coursebook. However, despite impressive advances in the range and possibilities of computer-related technology, with wikis, e-learning, m-learning, and podcasting, accompanied by extensive efforts at teacher training in many contexts, language teachers on the whole still treat computers as marginal, and have largely failed to achieve this 'normalisation' of computers in their daily work.

    This paper looks at why this may be so, drawing on research into technological innovation in other walks of life in an attempt to understand the social and psychological factors which might either impede or assist technological normalisation in our profession. This is particularly important as we try to draw on Web 2.0 technologies in our work. I also look at the roles which human change agents (including managers and parents) can play in this process.

    Drawing on this research I then consider how we might use these insights so as to move more quickly towards the 'normalisation' of computer technology in language teaching, and how this could be achieved in the many and varied learning situations in different contexts around the world. To illustrate my ideas, I draw on examples from language schools, from international CMC projects and from other areas of the profession.

    References:
    Bax, S. (2003). CALL - past, present and future. System, 31(1): 13-28.
    Chambers, A. & S. Bax (2006). Making CALL work: Towards normalisation. System, 34: 465-479.


     

    Dr Stephen Bax is Principal Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University in the United Kingdom. In Canterbury he teaches on the MA TESOL programme, mainly on methodology, CALL, discourse and sociolinguistics. He also supervises MPhil and PhD work in ICT, in discourse analysis and teacher education. He is particularly interested in ethnographic, qualitative and ecological perspectives on language teaching and learning, with and without ICT.


     

  2. Trude Heift

    Errors and Intelligence in CALL: Bridging a World of Diverse Learners


     

    In the field of ICALL, the field integrating Natural Language Processing and other AI techniques into Computer-Assisted Language Learning, research has been conducted in many of the same sub-areas being studied in applied and computational linguistics. This talk will not cover all aspects of ICALL, but instead, will be restricted to two sub-fields of my own work: firstly, using NLP techniques to diagnose and explain a variety of learner errors and, secondly, using AI techniques to address issues relating to an inherently diverse population of language learners.

    What ties the two areas together is a focus on learner-centered aspects of CALL for different language learners. In the first part of this talk, I will provide a brief introduction to ICALL including an overview of its historical developments with its success stories and failures. In the second part, I will focus on learner feedback and demonstrate that CALL programs, including my own, have focused on enhancing learner-computer interaction by providing program and learner guidance and thus improving learner feedback. Finally, I will explore aspects of learner modeling for language assessment, individualized instruction and learner autonomy. The talk will conclude with current trends in research and development in ICALL.


     

    Trude Heift received a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Simon Fraser University, Canada focusing on applied and computational linguistics. She is currently Associate Professor of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University teaching German and linguistics. Her areas of research include several aspects of applied and computational linguistics: ICALL system design, human-computer interaction, learner feedback, error analysis, learner modeling and L2 morphology and grammar acquisition. Her publications include: Errors and Intelligence in Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Parsers and Pedagogues, Routledge, 2007, and articles in System, CALL, ReCALL, CALICO, Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education and Journal of Educational Technology & Society. She has also edited special journal issues for CALICO, CALL and Language Learning & Technology and authored the E-Tutor, a widely used ICALL system for German. Her work is funded by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Canada to investigate issues relating to Second Language Acquisition and learner-computer interaction.


     

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