Developing CALL for heritage languages: The 7 Keys of the Dragon

[EN] In this article we present an interactive extensible software, The 7 Keys of the Dragon, for the teaching/learning of Albanian and Russian to students that attend primary and secondary education in Greece with the respective languages as their heritage languages. We address the key challenges we encountered during the conceptualization phase of the project development and the specific design choices we implemented in order to accommodate them. Drawing on recent research on the role of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) applications for young bilingual populations, we aimed at creating a user friendly environment with a clear pedagogical orientation. Furthermore, given that games in language learning are associated with intrinsic motivation and meaningful exposure to the target language, we have integrated a fairy-tale background narrative, a game-inspired reward system, and two cartoon-like assistant characters to stimulate the user’s involvement in the learning tasks. Five chapters for each target language were created, each comprising a text, a variety of scaffolding material and quizzes. The software is designed to provide real-time automatic correction of quizzes and allow for easy expansion with additional quizzes and texts. A separate application for teachers facilitates essay correction and commenting on the students’ language learning progress and achievements.We are grateful to Amalia Rodou-Gorou and Tania Zouravliova for creating the language materials, to Nestoras Pelesoglou for the graphic design, and to Prof. dr. Ioannis Spantidakis for providing guidance in the pedagogical design of the e-learning environment. This research was supported by the programme “Education of Immigrant and Repatriate Students” (Action 5, Deliverable 5.2.3) funded by the European Social Fund, National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) 2007-2014 and the Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs of the Hellenic Republic. The usual disclaimers apply.Revithiadou, A.; Kourtis-Kazoullis, V.; Soukalopoulou, M.; Konstantoudakis, K.; Zarras, C. (2015). Developing CALL for heritage languages: The 7 Keys of the Dragon. The EuroCALL Review. 23(2):38-57. doi:10.4995/eurocall.2015.4667.SWORD385723

A new approach to CALL content authoring

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Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate

Hawkridge, D., Ng, K., & Verjans, S. (Eds.) (2011). Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate. The 18th annual conference of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT-C 2011). September, 6-8, 2011, University of Leeds, England, UK. URI:http://repository.alt.ac.uk/2159Here are the proceedings of the 2011 ALT Conference ‘‘Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate’’. Proceedings papers report on a piece of research, possibly in its early stages, or they can be ‘‘thoughtpieces’’ which state a point of view or summarise an area of work, perhaps giving new insights. The conference has six themes: . Research and rigour: creating, marshalling and making effective use of evidence . Making things happen: systematic design, planning and implementation . Broad tents and strange bedfellows: collaborating, scavenging and sharing to increase value . At the sharp end: enabling organisations and their managers to solve business, pedagogic and technical challenges . Teachers of the future: understanding and influencing the future role and practices of teachers . Preparing for a thaw: looking ahead to a time beyond the disruptive discontinuities of the next few years. Interestingly, there were very few proposals for the conference as a whole against the sixth theme: and no proceedings papers. Perhaps the thaw is still perceived as being too far away to warrant any preparation yet!Association for learning technolog

International Usability, Design Guidelines and Effectiveness of a World Wide Web-Based Instructional Program for High School Students in a Cross-Culture Learning Environment

The recent growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) has resulted in a vast array of on-line courseware and educational Web sites. Unfortunately, as a large percentage of this information is written in English, non-English speakers are unable to access it. Information written in other languages is likewise unavailable to many native English speakers. Therefore, in order to maximize the usefulness of educational material on the Web, it is necessary to design and implement cross-cultural, bilingual or multilingual Web sites and instructional programs. This study was designed to contribute to the area of bilingual learning on the Web. The researcher developed and evaluated three types of mathematics courseware: an English-only version, a Japanese-only version, and a bilingual version. While both the bilingual and English-only courseware enabled Japanese students with a basic knowledge of English to learn both quadratic equations and mathematical terms in English, the research found that the bilingual version was the most effective courseware for learning both mathematics and English simultaneously. Formative and summative evaluations were conducted in order to improve the program and determine the effectiveness of the bilingual courseware. As the courseware was implemented and evaluated, design guidelines were generated and the issue of courseware usability was explored

Teacher assisting and subject adaptive material system : an Arabic adaptive learning environment

This thesis reports on research to develop the first adaptive learning system for the Arabic language. The research also develops the first robust translation of the Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Styles (ILS) instrument into Arabic. Literal translation of the ILS applied to a pilot study resulted in lower internal validity in the instrument than found in the English language versions. The research discusses the development of a translation protocol undertaken to improve the validity and internal reliability of the Arabic version of the ILS. The new Arabic version of the Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Styles (ILS) instrument has been applied to two Arabic speaking groups in different Faculties at the King Abdul-Aziz University in Saudi Arabia: The Arts and Humanities Faculty and the Economics and Administration Faculty a total of 1204 students. Further analysis indicates that the Arabic version of the Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Styles (ILS) seems to be an appropriate psychometric instrument to identify learning styles in Arabic speaking communities. The second major part of the research was to use the Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Styles (ILS) instrument to develop an adaptive learning styles system and evaluate its effectiveness. The Teacher Assisting and Subject Adaptive Material System (TASAM) was tested out on different cohorts of students. Results showed that students taught using the learning style adaptive system performed significantly better in academic achievement than students taught the same material without adaptation to learning style. The feedback of student’s Survey overall students seemed to have enjoyed using the TASAM system and there seemed to have been a positive impact on learning performance. The thesis also provides guidance on translations of psychometric instrument and developing adaptive learning system.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

What I know Best: Assessing Indonesian Student’s Structural Knowledge through Student-Generated Topics

Developing Indonesian English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ structural knowledge presents a number of complexities especially in the bilingual context. This study aimed to determine how the structural knowledge patterns of Indonesian EFL students is, and it specifically explored various aspects that make structural knowledge representation difficult. The research also aimed to formulate an accommodative assessment model for the development of students' structural knowledge. Using a case study design, this study involved 120 English literature students (N=120) taking the Psycholinguistics class at one of the tertiary institutions in Malang, Indonesia. The research instruments included essay tests and questionnaires. The research findings showed that students in bilingual contexts have certain diversity and patterns in their structural knowledge. Second, students’ structural knowledge could be influenced by a number of aspects such as topic mastery and the flow of thought. Furthermore, students’ structural knowledge can be accommodated in an adequate evaluation model that measures structural knowledge and critical thinking skills. Further research in the area of content and language assessment will complete the study of the significance of structural knowledge in a bilingual contex