Intelligent CALL

This chapter describes the provision of corrective feedback in Tutorial CALL, sketching the challenges in the research and development of computational parsers and grammars. The automatic evaluation and assessment of free-form learner texts paying attention to linguistic accuracy, rhetorical structures, textual complexity, and written fluency is at the centre of attention in the section on Automatic Writing Evaluation. Reading and Incidental Vocabulary Learning Aids looks at the advantages of lexical glosses, or look-up information in electronic dictionaries for reading material aimed at language learners. The conclusion looks at the role of ICALL in the context of general trends in CALL

Using Reciprocal Teaching to Develop Thinking in a Senior High EFL Classroom in Taiwan

[[abstract]]The 2010 Guidelines for Senior High School English Curriculum marks an important breakthrough in English language teaching in Taiwan. It is the first time that critical thinking and creative thinking are included in the curriculum guidelines. However, many English teachers are concerned about the feasibility of the guidelines, for little has been known about how to teach higher level thinking in regular classes. This study aims to explore whether reciprocal teaching－a reading instructional approach that consists of predicting, clarifying, summarizing, and questioning－is effective in developing higher level thinking among senior high school students and how much the students like the approach. The case study approach was used to conduct the present study. The participants were 36 male students in the first year of senior high school. During the six-week study, the students read five short stories via the reciprocal teaching method. Student-generated questions and the participants’ responses to the Perception Questionnaire were collected and analyzed. The coding scheme used to evaluate student-generated questions was adapted from Bloom’s (1956) taxonomy. Students’ questions were then categorized into (1) factual questions, (2) interpretational questions, (3) experiential questions, (4) analytical questions, (5) evaluative questions, and (6) creative questions. Important findings were summarized below. First, though the students tended to ask more lower level questions (i.e. factual questions and interpretational questions), they asked more interpretational questions than factual questions, and the factual questions were more related to the main idea of the stories than the details. Besides, the number of analytical questions and evaluative questions increased, and a great variety was found in the content of the questions. In addition, though the students did not make much progress in asking more creative questions, a great variety was also found in the content of such questions. What’s more, the students asked very few experiential questions, which seemed to be related to the characteristics of the stories. Most students had positive opinions about reciprocal teaching. They learned the four reading strategies of reciprocal teaching, improved their language skills, became more active learners, and became more conscious of their own learning and thinking. Furthermore, they became more able to read critically and more capable of asking “good” questions. Among the four reading strategies of reciprocal teaching, summary generation was simultaneously rated as the most useful strategy in facilitating reading comprehension and the most difficult one to learn. Pedagogical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future studies were presented as well.

Expectations eclipsed in foreign language education: learners and educators on an ongoing journey / edited by Hülya Görür-Atabaş, Sharon Turner.

Between June 2-4, 2011 Sabancı University School of Languages welcomed colleagues from 21 different countries to a collaborative exploration of the challenging and inspiring journey of learners and educators in the field of language education.\ud \ud The conference provided an opportunity for all stakeholders to share their views on language education. Colleagues met with world-renowned experts and authors in the fields of education and psychology, faculty and administrators from various universities and institutions, teachers from secondary educational backgrounds and higher education, as well as learners whose voices are often not directly shared but usually reported.\ud \ud The conference name, Eclipsing Expectations, was inspired by two natural phenomena, a solar eclipse directly before the conference, and a lunar eclipse, immediately after. Learners and educators were hereby invited to join a journey to observe, learn and exchange ideas in orde

Extensive reading as a breakthrough in a traditional EFL curriculum: experimental research in junior high schools in Taiwan

The main focus of this research was to examine the effects of extensive reading on junior high school students' language proficiency and learning attitude development, compared with those who received the current reading IR (grammar/translation-based) instruction. The potential of graded readers and books for native English speaking children in English learning was also investigated. The research aimed at finding evidence to support the adoption of extensive reading in the school syllabus in Taiwan, and to raise the awareness of educational authorities about the desirability of adopting ER in the school curriculum. The results of the study consistently showed that extensive reading is more effective on improving all the variables mentioned than the current IR instruction. While the positive outcomes stand in line with the results of previous studies, this study also gave insight into the use of the materials, the amount of reading time and accompanying activities. The findings indicated significantly the strength of the graded readers (GR) approach on students' language learning in all circumstances. The effects of reading books for native EngRsh speaking children (BNESC) proved positive only when the amount of time per week given to ER was doubled. Moreover, the results appeared to be contrary to the widely held belief that reading interesting books is alone sufficient to improve student attitudes. In fact, with this level and type of learners, without accompanying activities ER appeared to take away their enthusiasm. Once collaborative activities were introduced, ER showed great potential for improving language, proficiency, reading ability and attitudes toward reading. The findings demonstrate the potential of ER for improving students' language proficiency and learning attitudes. Thus, they provide support for integrating ER into the English curriculum for improving current learning and teaching approaches. Moreover, the findings indicate the desirability of investing in ER as paving the way for students' long-term development. Implications of this study can be deduced in several aspects: the adoption of ER, the need of book provision, the need of reading strategy training, the use of authentic reading materials, the amount of reading time and the use of accompanying activities

ALens: An Adaptive Domain-Oriented Abstract Writing Training Tool for Novice Researchers

The significance of novice researchers acquiring proficiency in writing abstracts has been extensively documented in the field of higher education, where they often encounter challenges in this process. Traditionally, students have been advised to enroll in writing training courses as a means to develop their abstract writing skills. Nevertheless, this approach frequently falls short in providing students with personalized and adaptable feedback on their abstract writing. To address this gap, we initially conducted a formative study to ascertain the user requirements for an abstract writing training tool. Subsequently, we proposed a domain-specific abstract writing training tool called ALens, which employs rhetorical structure parsing to identify key concepts, evaluates abstract drafts based on linguistic features, and employs visualization techniques to analyze the writing patterns of exemplary abstracts. A comparative user study involving an alternative abstract writing training tool has been conducted to demonstrate the efficacy of our approach.Comment: Accepted by HHME/CHCI 202

The impact of foreignness on the compliance with the international standards for the professional practice of internal auditing

The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) was established to organise the profession. The IIA provides members with an International Professional Practices Framework (IPPF) to lead their professional practice and confirm the highest-quality internal audit effects in various environments. One of the IPPF components is the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (the Standards). The goals of the Standards are to describe essential principles that characterise the practice of internal auditing, to deliver a framework for performing and promoting a wide range of value-added internal auditing, to create the basis for the assessment of internal audit performance, and to foster development of organizational processes and operations. However, some researchers have reported many factors related to the lack of compliance with the Standards, related directly to the fieldwork of the profession, which can be controlled by the board of directors, executives or audit committee either in the short or long term. This study however, is premised on the assumption that solving the internal factors (for instance, internal auditors’ educational level (college degree), professional certificates, Certificate of Internal Auditors (CIA), membership of organisation and age of internal audit staff) related directly to the organization or its resources is not the ultimate solution to compliance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing Standards. This is because, if a particular organisation tries to adopt a certain strategy to eliminate negative effects associated with internal factors, there are complicated external environmental factors that may not be controllable. For this reason, this study examines foreignness (social capital) as a major factor that affects internal auditors’ compliance with the Standards from an environmental perspective, which is one of the main significant contributions of this study. The study examines compliance with International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing in relation to various cultural factors, such as personal, friendship, and family relationships, which are especially salient in developing, Arab, and Gulf countries. Moreover, another contribution of this study is to examine compliance with the standards from a linguistic prospective. Many countries may recognize and use English as an official language and have no trouble in the basic comprehension of the standards, but meaning may not be completely and accurately conveyed in the nuances of the language, which are unique to different cultural settings. For this reason, the study assumes that language will play a critical role with regard to understanding and consequently complying with the standards. In non-English speaking countries, the IIA has tried to solve this issue by translating the standards into the host country language. Therefore, the study also examines compliance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing in terms of two main linguistic factors, Understanding and Translation. A questionnaire strategy was used to collect quantitative data. The companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange Market, selected from different sectors in order to have a diversity of responses from many industries. The results showed that there is an influence of social capital (personal social capital, friendship social capital, and family social capital) on the compliance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (Independence and Objectivity, Individual Objectivity, and Governance). The findings also showed that there is an effect of Linguistic Social Capital (Understanding, and Translation) on compliance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing with regard to professional terms such as Add Value and Residual Risk

A Comparative Evaluation of English for Palestine Grade One Teacher’s Books Original and New Editions

This study aimed at evaluating English for Palestine Grade 1 teacher’s books (TB) original and new editions in order to find out to what extent they are in line with the suggested evaluation criteria. It also aimed at comparing the two TBs to identify the differences between them. To fulfill the aims of the study, the researcher followed the descriptive-analytical approach. One main tool was used to collect data: a content analysis card. Benefiting from previous studies, related literature, journals and books, the researcher built the criteria of evaluation which constituted the content analysis card. The analysis card was shown to seven experts to benefit from their comments in regard to any potential modifications, additions and deletions to achieve validity. To ensure reliability the researcher asked for the cooperation of another researcher who analyzed the TBs along with her. Results obtained from analyzing original and new edition TBs were analyzed to find out the match degree with the suggested criteria. Later, a comparison was held between the two TBs to find out the differences between them in addition to finding out the shortcomings of New Edition TB. Based on the analysis of the data, the following were the most important conclusions. Regarding the introduction, TB original and new editions include clear and specific Grade 1 aims, offer clear overview of the organization of the course structure and components and provide detailed language map of the pupil’s book. They both differ in providing a clear approach in favor of the new edition and in providing guideline evaluation checklist and preparation notes in favor of the original edition TB. With regard to procedural guidance for teaching, both TBs offer clear objectives for each lesson/period, clear and practical suggestions for teaching listening, pronunciation, language, speaking, and writing activities, clear and practical suggestions on how to teach games and songs and various teaching activities and techniques. Both TBs need more supplementary teaching activities and TB new edition does not offer homework suggestions while TB original edition does. There is absence of advice for techniques for error correction from both TBs. TB new edition is better in terms of providing assessment than TB original edition. TB new and original editions provide good guidance and suggestions on using cassette, poster and flashcards. Cultural background information is absent from both TBs, TB new edition offers background information on course and lessons content more than TB original edition and learning difficulties are predicted and appropriate advice is given in TB new edition more than TB original edition. Both TBs provide excellent physical make-up. TB new edition presents better physical make-up in terms of that the TBs content can be more easily related to the Pupil’s Book content. Based on the study findings, the researcher recommended reviewing the evaluation checklist for constructing and evaluating the rest of TB series to overcome the shortcomings of Grade 1 TB new edition. It is also recommended to modify Grade 1 TB in terms of enriching it with supplementary activities, sample tests, error correction techniques and teaching songs

Katniss Everdeen’s Linguistic Features in Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games

Linguistic features become the main issue analyzed in this study since it gets much attention from numerous academics. To focus the analysis, Lakoff’s theory of Women’s Linguistic Features is adopted. In addition, Holmes (1992), Sandriani (2012) and Wright (2002)’s features of male’s language are also utilized. In the matter of collecting and analyzing the data, the researcher selects qualitative content analysis and descriptive research designs to deeply investigate Katniss’ utterances and the author’s description. The researcher herself becomes the only instrument – human instrument. Reading and selecting the data from the entire text of The Hunger Games is a part of data collection steps. Then, the procedures of data analysis contain identifying, classifying and elaborating the data. Drawing the conclusion is also the last step required. 23 utterances of women’s linguistic features and 45 utterances of men’s linguistic features eventually become the result of this study. To conclude, Katniss is linguistically portrayed as following men’s linguistic features more frequently than women’s linguistic features

Trialing project-based learning in a new EAP ESP course: A collaborative reflective practice of three college English teachers

Currently in many Chinese universities, the traditional College English course is facing the risk of being ‘marginalized’, replaced or even removed, and many hours previously allocated to the course are now being taken by EAP or ESP. At X University in northern China, a curriculum reform as such is taking place, as a result of which a new course has been created called ‘xue ke’ English. Despite the fact that ‘xue ke’ means subject literally, the course designer has made it clear that subject content is not the target, nor is the course the same as EAP or ESP. This curriculum initiative, while possibly having been justified with a rationale of some kind (e.g. to meet with changing social and/or academic needs of students and/or institutions), this is posing a great challenge for, as well as considerable pressure on, a number of College English teachers who have taught this single course for almost their entire teaching career. In such a context, three teachers formed a peer support group in Semester One this year, to work collaboratively co-tackling the challenge, and they chose Project-Based Learning (PBL) for the new course. This presentation will report on the implementation of this project, including the overall designing, operational procedure, and the teachers’ reflections. Based on discussion, pre-agreement was reached on the purpose and manner of collaboration as offering peer support for more effective teaching and learning and fulfilling and pleasant professional development. A WeChat group was set up as the chief platform for messaging, idea-sharing, and resource-exchanging. Physical meetings were supplementary, with sound agenda but flexible time, and venues. Mosoteach cloud class (lan mo yun ban ke) was established as a tool for virtual learning, employed both in and after class. Discussions were held at the beginning of the semester which determined only brief outlines for PBL implementation and allowed space for everyone to autonomously explore in their own way. Constant further discussions followed, which generated a great deal of opportunities for peer learning and lesson plan modifications. A reflective journal, in a greater or lesser detailed manner, was also kept by each teacher to record the journey of the collaboration. At the end of the semester, it was commonly recognized that, although challenges existed, the collaboration was overall a success and they were all willing to continue with it and endeavor to refine it to be a more professional and productive approach