Indonesian University Students’ Attitudes and Aspirations Towards ICT in EFL Learning

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been widely used in learning a language and it seems to influence learners’ attitude on learning a language. Therefore, this study is intended to reveal Indonesian University students’ attitudes on the use of ICT in EFL learning. The data were collected from 152 second-year students on English education program who contributed in an online-survey and 4 of them were involved in a semi-structured interview. To obtain the objective, a mixed-methods research design was applied. The result indicated that Indonesian university students have a high positive attitude towards the application of ICT in their EFL learning

The Effect of Direct Instruction on Spanish Language Acquisition in a Preschool Free-Play Environment: A Single-Case Design

The predicted increase in Spanish speakers within the United States brings to light a new direction for preschool curricula. There are multiple, on-going arguments about the best time for children to learn a second language and what role critical periods for brain development play in second language acquisition. Although there are individual differences in development, the current study demonstrates that children can learn Spanish vocabulary words with an average of 30 minutes of instruction per week. Using a combination of direct instruction with developmentally appropriate practices, hands-on, and engaging activities, the teaching of Spanish vocabulary, themed and age appropriate for preschoolers, was incorporated into the West Virginia University Nursery School classroom. Six children from the afternoon collaborative class were chosen to participate in various forms of activities that incorporated English and Spanish into play-based interactions. Using prompts and feedback or praise, the progress of the children across days and over weeks was recorded and examined. Girls improved significantly on Spanish words correctly identified from pre-test to post-test, while boys showed little to no improvement. However, all children improved in fluency, or time taken to identify a pictorial response. Across the five-week intervention, all children demonstrated improved pronunciation and increasing independence and use within each set of themed words. A combination of direct instruction and engaging, interactive activities was shown to be beneficial in the learning of the children. This method of teaching can be easily incorporated into a more naturalistic classroom setting by providing opportunities of various types to slip vocabulary, directives, and bilingual instruction into the daily routine

Promoting oral fluency for English learners using differentiated corrective feedback

The purpose of this project is to address the need from helping English learners to improve their oral expression. The research mainly focuses on oral expression stategies with which students can overcome their fear of speaking in public and be better understood in society. Sample curriculum/lesson plans included

Learning Icelandic in Virtual Reykjavik: Simulating real-life conversations with embodied conversational agents using multimodal clarification requests

Þessi doktorsritgerð er hluti af verkefninu Icelandic Language and Culture Training in Virtual Reykjavik, þrívíddartölvuleik sem gerir þeim sem eru að læra íslensku sem annað mál kleift að æfa tal og hlustun. Markmið verkefnisins var að búa til tölvuleik með sýndarspjallverum (e. embodied conversational agents) sem byggju yfir raunsærri fjölþættri hegðun, með það langtímamarkmið að styðja við hagnýta kennslu á íslensku máli og menningu þar sem mál úr raunverulegum samskiptum er notað. Markmið doktorsverkefnisins beindist að því að rannsaka raunveruleg yrt og óyrt atriði í skýringarbeiðnum meðal Íslendinga (e. clarification requests, CRs). Lögð voru til sex fjölþætt líkön af skýringarbeiðnum sem áttu að stuðla að raunhæfari samspili manna og sýndarspjallvera í Virtual Reykjavik. Þróun doktorsritgerðar fór fram í þremur lotum. Fyrst var gerð stutt könnun til að komast að því hvaða væntingar notendur hefðu til Virtual Reykjavik-þrívíddarforritsins. Nemendurnir sögðust eiga í erfiðleikum með að æfa sig í að tala íslensku við þá sem hafa íslensku að móðurmáli og kynnu því að meta að fá sýndarnámsumhverfi til að æfa sig í tali. Kennslufræðilegur grunnur Virtual Reykjavik tekur mið af samskiptaaðferðum, námi á grundvelli verkefna og leikja og fjölþættum og einstaklingsmiðuðum aðferðum í tungumálanámi. Sýndarspjallverur Virtual Reykjavik búa yfir fjölþættri hegðun sem er í samræmi við íslenska menningu. Með því að taka þátt í leiknum komast notendur í tæri við íslenskt mál og menningu í sýndarnámsveruleika áður en þeir eiga samskipti við Íslendinga. Meginviðfang rannsóknarinnar var samskiptaþátturinn skýringarbeiðni (CR) en nauðsynlegt var að afmarka rannsóknina við einn samskiptaþátt svo unnt væri að nota fjölþætta greiningu sem dugði til að forrita sýndarverurnar. Skýringarbeiðni er ein algengasta tegund segða í samtölum (Purver, 2004). Hún hjálpar til við að skýra það sem áður hefur verið sagt en sem viðmælandi hefur af einhverjum sökum ekki skilið og stuðlar þannig að góðu samtalsflæði. Af þessum sökum eru skýringarbeiðnir mjög mikilvægar til þess að ná fram raunsæjum samskiptum milli notanda og sýndarspjallveru í kerfum eins og okkar sem sameina sjálfvirka talgreiningu og samtöl sem skipulögð eru fyrir fram. Í næstu lotu rannsóknarinnar var málgögnum safnað til þess að greina yrta og óyrta þætti í mismunandi tegundum af skýringarbeiðnum. Vegna þess hversu flókið talmál er og fjölbreytileg samtöl geta verið var aðeins safnað samtölum þar sem ókunnugir spurðu til vegar í miðbæ Reykjavíkur. Þetta endurspeglaðist svo í þeim verkefnum sem nemendur þyrftu að leysa í Virtual Reykjavik. Þar spyrja þeir sýndarspjallverur til vegar í miðbæ Reykjavíkur og verurnar nota skýringaraðferðir til að vísa til vegar á sem raunsæjastan hátt. Þó ber ekki að líta svo á að þetta sé tæmandi rannsókn á eðli skýringarbeiðna heldur fjölþætt lýsing á skýringarbeiðnum, notkun þeirra í sérstökum samræðuaðstæðum í leiknum og beitingu þeirra til að líkja eftir mannlegri hegðun. Sex mismunandi fjölþættar skýringarbeiðnategundir voru búnar til á grundvelli gagnagrunns með myndbandsupptökum af raunverulegum samtölum milli fólks með íslensku að móðurmáli og fólks sem ekki hefur íslensku að móðurmáli. Þetta voru í heild 165 upptökur, 1.59.02 klst. á lengd, 108 pör fólks þar sem annar aðilinn hefur íslensku að móðurmáli en hinn ekki og 57 pör þar sem báðir aðilar hafa íslensku að móðurmáli, karlmenn og konur. Aldur þeirra sem höfðu íslensku að móðurmáli var á bilinu 18–70 ár og meðalaldurinn u.þ.b. 35 ár en þeir sem ekki höfðu íslensku að móðurmáli voru á aldrinum 20–40 ára og meðalaldur þar u.þ.b. 30 ár. Úr þessum gagnagrunni var búinn til fjölþættur stofn skýringarbeiðna sem samanstóð af yrtum og óyrtum gögnum fyrir hverja tegund af skýringarbeiðni. Myndbandsupptökur voru greindar með ELAN merkingar- og skýringapakkanum. Í hverri greiningu var fjölþættum gögnum lýst. Fjölþættri nálgun við tungumál og fjölþættri greiningu á samskiptum var beitt til að greina yrta og óyrta þætti skýringarbeiðna. Vegna takmarka á umfangi rannsóknarinnar voru aðeins tvær gerðir beiðna notaðar, úrfelling og innskotsaðferð. Að lokum var framkvæmd notendakönnun til að komast að því hvernig nemendur skynjuðu fjölþætta hegðun sýndarspjallveranna í leiknum og hvort þeir tækju eftir þessum tveimur tegundum skýringarbeiðna í honum. Nemendum þótti innskotsaðferðin vera eðlilegust þótt þeim hefði fundist henni stundum vera beitt dálítið ruddalega eða hún verið notuð of mikið af sýndarspjallverunum. Það hversu spjallverurnar notuðu mikið skýringarbeiðnirnar var ekki mælt þar sem einblínt var á nemendur sem notendur í þessari frumútgáfu leiksins. Könnunin leiddi í ljós fjölda möguleika til að betrumbæta fjölþætta hegðun spjallveranna í framtíðarútgáfum leiksins. Sérstaklega bentu notendur á að ákveðin svipbrigði og að spjallverurnar gætu ekki brosað gerði það að verkum að þær virkuðu „óhugnanlegar“. Í stuttu máli eru færð rök fyrir því í ritgerðinni að þrívíddartölvuleikir nýtist vel til að kenna íslenska tungu og menningu, með sérstakri áherslu á að æfa talmálsfærni. Fjallað er um og stutt með kennslufræðilegum kenningum hvernig bæta megi námsupplifun og kalla fram alvörusamskipti í sýndarveruleika með raunsærri og fjölþættri hegðun spjallvera. Skoðaðar voru sex skýringaraðferðir sem fólk með íslensku að móðurmáli notaði til að vísa til vegar, annars vegar af fólki með íslensku að móðurmáli og hins vegar þeim sem ekki hafa íslensku að móðurmáli. Í ritgerðinni er einnig bent á hugsanlegar nýjar rannsóknir í sambandi við skýringarbeiðnir og Virtual Reykjavik. Skoða mætti frekar fjölþættar skýringarbeiðnir í samtölum við aðrar aðstæður og í öðrum tungumálum. Slíkt myndi gagnast við að betrumbæta þær skýringarbeiðnir sem sýndarspjallverur í Virtual Reykjavik nota. Ágætis byrjun á áframhaldandi vinnu væri að framkvæma nýja könnun með fullkomnari leiðbeiningum, námsefni og stoðbúnaði, talgreinikerfi sem virkar á allan hátt í Virtual Reykjavik og með sýndarspjallverum sem byggju yfir fleiri eiginleikum, gætu t.d. brosað.This thesis forms part of the project Icelandic Language and Culture Training in Virtual Reykjavik, a 3D computer game that enables learners of Icelandic to practise oral language and listening. The aim of the project was to build a computer game populated with embodied conversational agents (ECAs) endowed with realistic multimodal behaviour, with a long-term goal of supporting authentic teaching of Icelandic language and culture. The part of the project reported in this thesis focused on examining human verbal and non-verbal features in clarification requests (CRs). Six multimodal CR models were suggested for implementation, with the intention of promoting a more realistic human-agent interaction in Virtual Reykjavik. The research took place in three phases. First, a small survey was carried out, eliciting learners’ expectations from Virtual Reykjavik. It informed about learners’ expectations of a 3D application. Learners reported difficulties in practising spoken Icelandic with native speakers in real life and for this reason said they would appreciate a virtual learning environment for practising oral language. The pedagogical foundation of Virtual Reykjavik considers the communicative approach in language instruction, task- and game-based learning, and multimodal and individual language learning approaches. Virtual Reykjavik was populated with ECAs endowed with multimodal behaviour that is authentic to Icelandic culture. Engaging in the game provided learners with an opportunity to experience Icelandic language as it is spoken in the target culture but in a virtual learning environment, and prior to engaging with speakers in the real world. The communicative function CR was chosen as the main object of multimodal analysis, in order to narrow down the focus to a specific topic in natural language research. CR is one of the most commonly used utterance-types in spoken conversations (Purver, 2004); it helps to clarify what has previously been said but for whatever reason not understood by the recipient, and as such facilitates smooth conversational flow. For these reasons, CR is very important in achieving a realistic human-agent interaction in systems, like ours, which combine automatic speech recognition and pre-planned dialogues. In this second phase, natural language data was collected in order to analyse the verbal and non-verbal features in various types of CRs. Due to the complexity of spoken language and a wide range of possible conversational scenarios, data were collected only during first encounters asking for directions to a location in central Reykjavik. This in turn reflected the same task learners would need to do in Virtual Reykjavik - they would ask agents for directions in central Virtual Reykjavik and the agents would use clarification strategies in an authentic way. It should, however, not be seen as an exhaustive treatise about the nature of CRs but rather as a multimodal description of CRs, their use in a particular conversational scenario in the game, and their application to the development of human-like behaviour. Based on a database of video recordings of real-life conversations between native and non-native speakers of Icelandic, six different multimodal CR types were characterised. (165 recordings with total recorded time 1 hour, 59 minutes and 2 seconds; 108 native-non-native speaker pairs and 57 native-native speaker pairs, men and women; ages of native speakers between 18-70 with average age approximately 35 years, and ages of non-native speakers between 20-40 with average age approximately 30 years). Out of this database, a multimodal corpus of CRs was created, consisting of verbal and non-verbal data for each type of CR. Video recordings were analysed using the ELAN tagging and annotation package. Each analysis consisted of a description of multimodal data. The multimodal approach to language and the multimodal interaction analysis were used to analyse the verbal and non-verbal features of CRs. Due to resource constraints, only two types, the Ellipsis and the Fragment (Interjection Strategy), were implemented. Finally, a user response study was conducted in order to find out how learners perceived multimodal behaviour of ECAs in the game, and whether surveyed learners noticed the two implemented CRs. Learners perceived the CR Fragment (Interjection Strategy) as the most natural, despite its being perceived as slightly rude or used too frequently by the ECAs. The frequency of use of CRs by the ECAs was not measured, since the focus was on learners as users of this game prototype. The study revealed many possibilities for improving the multimodal behaviour of ECAs which could be implemented in future versions. In particular, certain facial expressions, and their lack of ability to smile, were commonly perceived by learners as “creepy”. In summary, this thesis presents the rationale for building a 3D computer game for teaching Icelandic language and culture, with a focus on practising oral language skills. It presents pedagogical background for including authentic features into the multimodal behaviour of ECAs in a computer game to achieve a more realistic human-agent interaction, and thus to contribute to an improved learning experience in an online virtual learning environment. Six clarification strategies used by native speakers of Icelandic were observed when they were approached by other native and non-native speakers asking for directions. The thesis also outlines points for future work on CRs and Virtual Reykjavik. Exploration of multimodal CRs in other conversational settings and languages would be useful for further improving ECA CRs used in Virtual Reykjavik. A good starting point for a continuation would be to conduct a new study with more complete instructions, learning materials and scaffolding, a fully functioning speech recognition system in Virtual Reykjavik, and ECAs endowed with additional features including smiling.RANNÍ

Development of English as a Second Language in the Context of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games

This dissertation examined the affordances of commercially developed massively multiplayer online (role-playing) games (MMOGs) for second language (L2) development. It comprises three self-contained but related studies. The first study, as a scoping review, synthesized 32 empirical papers, which investigated different aspects of L2 development in the context of these games. It sought to find out what aspects of L2 learning have been examined and how, and what the findings suggest regarding L2 learning opportunities and outcomes. This study highlighted that empirical research in this area is mainly qualitative and that L2-related affective factors, vocabulary, and communicative competence have been the most widely investigated topics. It concluded that MMOGs afford socially supportive and emotionally safe environments, which encourage L2 learners to use multiple opportunities for enriching their L2 vocabulary and enhancing their communicative competence in the target language. The second study was an exploratory research. It adopted an interactionist approach to characterize the nature of the negotiations of meaning that occurred in the conversational exchanges between native (NES) and non-native English speakers (NNESs) playing World of Warcraft. The data consisted of 63 hours of audio-recorded, in-game conversations over a 5-month period. The participants consisted of an NES and 6 NNESs who were divided into two groups (low and high intermediate) according to their English language proficiency. This study identified and characterized the most frequently occurred triggers, indicators, responses and reaction to the responses in three types of dyadic conversational exchanges. The third study examined L2 development through ―usage-based‖ theories of language learning. It was a time-series (longitudinal) research that examined the trend of changes in the linguistic complexity of the NNESs‘ spoken discourse during a 5-month period of gameplay. This examination involved repeated (in three equally-distributed time intervals) calculations of fourteen syntactic complexity indices and the indices associated with three components of lexical complexity (diversity, sophistication, and density). Overall, the results turned out to be more promising for the low intermediate than the high intermediate group of the NNESs. More detailed findings are presented and discussed in light of the current literature

Development of English as a Second Language in the Context of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games

This dissertation examined the affordances of commercially developed massively multiplayer online (role-playing) games (MMOGs) for second language (L2) development. It comprises three self-contained but related studies. The first study, as a scoping review, synthesized 32 empirical papers, which investigated different aspects of L2 development in the context of these games. It sought to find out what aspects of L2 learning have been examined and how, and what the findings suggest regarding L2 learning opportunities and outcomes. This study highlighted that empirical research in this area is mainly qualitative and that L2-related affective factors, vocabulary, and communicative competence have been the most widely investigated topics. It concluded that MMOGs afford socially supportive and emotionally safe environments, which encourage L2 learners to use multiple opportunities for enriching their L2 vocabulary and enhancing their communicative competence in the target language. The second study was an exploratory research. It adopted an interactionist approach to characterize the nature of the negotiations of meaning that occurred in the conversational exchanges between native (NES) and non-native English speakers (NNESs) playing World of Warcraft. The data consisted of 63 hours of audio-recorded, in-game conversations over a 5-month period. The participants consisted of an NES and 6 NNESs who were divided into two groups (low and high intermediate) according to their English language proficiency. This study identified and characterized the most frequently occurred triggers, indicators, responses and reaction to the responses in three types of dyadic conversational exchanges. The third study examined L2 development through ―usage-based‖ theories of language learning. It was a time-series (longitudinal) research that examined the trend of changes in the linguistic complexity of the NNESs‘ spoken discourse during a 5-month period of gameplay. This examination involved repeated (in three equally-distributed time intervals) calculations of fourteen syntactic complexity indices and the indices associated with three components of lexical complexity (diversity, sophistication, and density). Overall, the results turned out to be more promising for the low intermediate than the high intermediate group of the NNESs. More detailed findings are presented and discussed in light of the current literature

Asian American: a personal exploration of my identities and some possible implications for teachers

As the population of Asian Americans in the United States grows fast, so does the incidence of racist attacks on Asian Americans. The urgency for anti-racist educators to commit to learning how to best serve Asian American children, their families, and their communities in accordance with antiracist, counter hegemonic linguistic practices, and culturally sustaining principles grows exponentially. Through a deep reflection on my personal and often painful experience as a Korean immigrant in the United States, I use an interdisciplinary approach including Socio- and Racio-linguistics, Social Psychology, Anthropology, and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, to analyze some of the challenges that I have experienced and observed throughout my life here as a student, teacher and permanent resident. My focus is primarily on three groups of Asian Americans from North Eastern Asia—China, Japan, and Korea. Included are some suggestions for teachers who want to learn more about recognizing, understanding, and being responsive to the myriad strengths that their Asian American students, families and communities bring. I conclude with an afterword that recent attacks on Asian Americans related to the COVID-19 crisis emboldened me to write

Investigating 3D Visual Speech Animation Using 2D Videos

Lip motion accuracy is of paramount importance for speech intelligibility, especially for users who are hard of hearing or foreign language learners. Furthermore, generating a high level of realism in lip movements is required for the game and film production industries. This thesis focuses on the mapping of tracked lip motions of front-view 2D videos of a real speaker to a synthetic 3D head. A data-driven approach is used based on a 3D morphable model (3DMM) built using 3D synthetic head poses. The 3DMMs have been widely used for different tasks such as face recognition, detect facial expressions and lip motions in 2D videos. However, investigating factors such as the required facial landmarks for the mapping process, the amount of data for constructing the 3DMM, and differences in facial features between real faces and 3D faces that may influence the resulting animation have not been considered yet. Therefore, this research centers around investigating the impact of these factors on the final 3D lip motions. The thesis explores how different sets of facial features used in the mapping process influence the resulting 3D motions. Five sets of the facial features are used for mapping the real faces to the corresponding 3D faces. The results show that the inclusion of eyebrows, eyes, nose, and lips improves the 3D lip motions, while face contour features (i.e. the outside boundary of the front view of the face) restrict the face’s mesh, distorting the resulting animation. This thesis investigates how using different amounts of data when constructing the 3DMM affects the 3D lip motions. The results show that using a wider range of synthetic head poses for different phoneme intensities to create a 3DMM, as well as a combination of front- and side-view photographs of real speakers to produce initial neutral 3D synthetic head poses, provides better animation results compared to ground truth data consisting of front- and side-view 2D videos of real speakers. The thesis also investigates the impact of differences and similarities in facial features between real speakers and the 3DMMs on the resulting 3D lip motions by mapping between non-similar faces based on differences and similarities in vertical mouth height and mouth width. The objective and user test results show that mapping 2D videos of real speakers with low vertical mouth heights to 3D heads that correspond to real speakers with high vertical mouth heights, or vice versa, generates less good 3D lip motions. It is thus important that this is considered when using a 2D recording of a real actor’s lip movements to control a 3D synthetic character

Linguistic complexity of arabic language: a semantic analysis of antonymous homonyms in the holy Qur'ān

Homonymy, is one of the two main sub-divisions of lexical ambiguity that represents the complex nature of form and context of the Qur'anic Arabic which presents a challenge in the translation process. Since Qur'anic discourse abounds with homonymic expressions whose meaning is derived from the context, the translators of the Qur'an should undertake a demanding task decoding the intended meanings. The present paper aims at clarifying some linguistic complexities in some verses of the Qur'ān which may pose difficulty to translators of the holy book most especially those who are not familiar with antonymous homonyms in Arabic language. The reason is that antonymous homonyms are special features of the Qurʾanic Arabic language. It may be viewed as one of the stylistic feature of the Qur'an. Therefore, classification of these linguistic complexity is offered and the samples of these classifications from the Holy Qur'ān are mentioned in relation to antonymous homonyms. Samples of translated Qur'an are compared in order to ascertain the qualities of translations and English translation strategies of the stated verses