E/Valuating new media in language development

This paper addresses the need for a new approach to the educational evaluation of software that falls under the rubric "new media" or "multimedia" as distinct from previous generations of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) software. The authors argue that present approaches to CALL software evaluation are not appropriate for a new genre of CALL software distinguished by its shared assumptions about language learning and teaching as well as by its technical design. The paper sketches a research-based program called "E/Valuation" that aims to assist language educators to answer questions about the educational effectiveness of recent multimedia language learning software. The authors suggest that such program needs to take into account not only the nature of the new media and its potential to promote language learning in novel ways, but also current professional knowledge about language learning and teaching

The Effects of Computer-Assisted Language Learning on English Language Proficiency

The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 requires high standards, but academic achievement among English Language Learners (ELL) falls below that of their peers in Texas. These students\u27 lower academic achievement may lead to their dropping out of high school, not going to college, or being underemployed, a problem that led to this study. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether computer-assisted language learning (CALL) helps ELLs improve their English language proficiency compared to traditional learning approaches. Levy\u27s theoretical framework on the implementation of CALL guided this study. A nonequivalent, pretest-and-posttest design was used to examine mean differences in the increase in proficiency level from the beginning to the end of the year on the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) of ELLS in Grades 3-5 who participated in CALL and of those who did not participate. The sample consisted of 106 English language learners in Grades 3-5: 57 students in the treatment group and 49 in the comparison group. A one-way analysis of variance was conducted to compare language proficiency between the treatment and comparison groups. Results revealed no significant difference in the mean increase in proficiency levels of English language learners between the treatment and comparison groups. Additional analyses of TELPAS subdomains (reading, speaking, listening, and writing) indicated CALL was effective on reading only. Based on the findings, a project study on professional development was designed to focus on instructional strategies to support CALL. This project may lead to social change among administrators and teachers in the methods and strategies they use in the classroom to support CALL and as they work collaboratively to improve language proficiency among English language learners

Self-imitating Feedback Generation Using GAN for Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Training

Self-imitating feedback is an effective and learner-friendly method for non-native learners in Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Training. Acoustic characteristics in native utterances are extracted and transplanted onto learner's own speech input, and given back to the learner as a corrective feedback. Previous works focused on speech conversion using prosodic transplantation techniques based on PSOLA algorithm. Motivated by the visual differences found in spectrograms of native and non-native speeches, we investigated applying GAN to generate self-imitating feedback by utilizing generator's ability through adversarial training. Because this mapping is highly under-constrained, we also adopt cycle consistency loss to encourage the output to preserve the global structure, which is shared by native and non-native utterances. Trained on 97,200 spectrogram images of short utterances produced by native and non-native speakers of Korean, the generator is able to successfully transform the non-native spectrogram input to a spectrogram with properties of self-imitating feedback. Furthermore, the transformed spectrogram shows segmental corrections that cannot be obtained by prosodic transplantation. Perceptual test comparing the self-imitating and correcting abilities of our method with the baseline PSOLA method shows that the generative approach with cycle consistency loss is promising

ImpacT2 project: preliminary study 1: establishing the relationship between networked technology and attainment

This report explored teaching practices, beliefs and teaching styles and their influences on ICT use and implementation by pupils. Additional factors explored included the value of school and LEA policies and teacher competence in the use of ICT in classroom settings. ImpaCT2 was a major longitudinal study (1999-2002) involving 60 schools in England, its aims were to: identify the impact of networked technologies on the school and out-of-school environment; determine whether or not this impact affected the educational attainment of pupils aged 816 years (at Key Stages 2, 3, and 4); and provide information that would assist in the formation of national, local and school policies on the deployment of IC

Utilizing Technology to Increase Language Understanding for ELL Students

This action research was driven by the researcher’s interest in using technology to enhance ELL students’ language understanding. Specifically, the researcher was particularly interested in using a class-wide intervention called “Storyworld”. This intervention is technology-based and will be used to help increase English skills including all the language-learning domains: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The researcher is a third grade general-education teacher that has been teaching third grade students for three years. In particular, the population of students within the researcher’s third grade classroom are characterized as English language learners. The intervention, Storyworld, was implemented over a course of 4 weeks including an original benchmark score and post-assessment score after the intervention was fully established. Findings revealed that the technological program, Storyworld, was successful in helping increase English language fluency and skills. The research was conducted to bring forth a new instructional method to be used for ELL students within a elementary-leveled classroom

Exploring CALL Options for Teaching EFL in Vietnam

Research has demonstrated that computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has the capacity to enhance second language learning. Therefore, in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts like Vietnam, the government has invested in computers in schools as a way to address the lack of quality in education. However, Vietnamese EFL teachers have made little or no use of these computers. The purpose of this Alternate Plan Paper (APP) is to assist Vietnamese ESL teachers in choosing appropriate CALL programs. I select some of the most effective, user-friendly, and cost-effective CALL options for language areas and language skills. The options are selected based on the availability of resources, the teachers\u27 and learners\u27 computer proficiency levels, and the Vietnamese institutional context. The recommended options are also based on my personal experience as a CALL learner and user, and a one-month observation of CALL applications in a classroom at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The paper also discusses the pedagogical principles for using the recommended options effectively and efficiently

Technology and Vocabulary

Vocabulary knowledge is one of the most important components of L2 proficiency (Schmitt, 2010). At the same time, the acquisition of L2 vocabulary is particularly challenging because it is item-based as opposed to rule-based acquisition of grammar. That is to say that vocabulary items (words and multiword units) need to be learned one-by-one, which requires repeated exposure and practice. Furthermore, learners need to be actively engaged with the target lexical items for them to be committed to memory and eventually acquired. With the exponential growth of technological applications for L2 learning in recent years, many tools and methods have come to the aid of learners by increasing both the frequency of exposure and the level of engagement

The effects of providing EFL students with asynchronous and online instant feedback

Esta síntesis de investigación tuvo como objetivo el analizar los efectos de utilizar retroalimentación asíncrona y retroalimentación instantánea en línea con estudiantes universitarios de inglés como lengua extranjera. Este estudio exploró las ventajas y desventajas de usar cada tipo de retroalimentación y los factores que los profesores de inglés toman en cuenta para elegir si usar retroalimentación asíncrona o retroalimentación instantánea en línea. Se seleccionaron veinte estudios empíricos realizados entre 2008 y 2021 para el análisis de datos de esta investigación. Los resultados de esta investigación indicaron que la retroalimentación instantánea en línea incrementa la motivación y las calificaciones de los estudiantes universitarios mientras que la retroalimentación asíncrona tiene efectos positivos en el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes en las cuatro principales áreas del lenguaje. Además, los estudiantes que recibieron retroalimentación asíncrona superaron a los estudiantes que recibieron retroalimentación instantánea en línea. Una limitación de este estudio es la falta de información sobre el uso de retroalimentación asíncrona y retroalimentación instantánea en línea en Latino América, por lo que se sugiere más investigación empírica sobre el tema en esta áreaThis research synthesis aimed to investigate and analyze the effects of using asynchronous and online instant feedback with EFL college students. This research also explored the advantages and disadvantages of each feedback method and the factors that influence teachers to consider using online instant feedback or asynchronous feedback. Twenty empirical studies from 2008 to 2021 were selected for the data analysis. The results of this research show that online instant feedback improves EFL college students’ motivation and grades while asynchronous feedback has a positive effect on learners’ academic performance in the four language skills areas, that EFL students who received asynchronous feedback can outperform the learners who got online instant feedback, and that EFL teachers prefer asynchronous feedback over online instant feedback. A limitation of this study is the lack of information about the use of asynchronous and online instant feedback in Latin American countries; consequently, further research in such contexts is being suggestedLicenciado en Ciencias de la Educación en Pedagogía de los Idiomas Nacionales y ExtranjerosCuenc