[ Home ] [ About ] [ Events ] [ Publications ] [ Resources ] [ Services ]

C&IT Centre

No 4, Feb 95, Pt 1

[ Up ]

 

New look for CTI

At the CTI office in Hull, we have had some staff changes from 1 January 1995. The small team who run CTI Modern Languages and lead the TELL Consortium continue to be directed by Graham Chesters and managed by June Thompson. Jenny Parsons continues as Information Officer for CTI Modern Languages and is also Production Manager for the TELL consortium. Pamela Grant, our senior secretary, continues to do much of the administrative and secretarial work but is now Assistant Information Officer. Our new full-time secretary, Kylie Baxter, replaces Maristela Coupe, who has left us to follow a full-time degree course in Engineering Science. Kylie (yes, she is from Melbourne, Australia!) is also responsible for handling EUROCALL enquires and membership arrangements. We have also been joined by Fred Riley, who recently completed a contract at Hull under the IT Training Initiative. Fred's title is Software Development Adviser, and he will divide his time between assisting Jenny with TELL production matters, working with the TELL Language Handling Tools development team at Hull and generally contributing to the operation of CTI Modern Languages. We hope that the small increase in our staff will enable us to offer even better services.

Enquiries from individuals are normally dealt with within two or three days, but you are likely to get a quicker response if you use email. Messages to Jenny Parsons at the address on this page will be forwarded to the appropriate member of staff.

ETLL 5: Self-Access and Distance Learning

The fifth in the series of expert seminars entitled Educational Technology in Language Learning, organised by CTI Modern Languages, was held at the Hilton National, Milton Keynes on 16-17 November 1994. The theme on this occasion was Self-access and Distance Learning, and the location at Milton Keynes was no accident, given the valuable contribution from colleagues at the Open University. As usual, invitees were limited to thirty, and the papers by invited speakers served as a stimulus for lively discussion sessions. The paper by Charles Jennings of CECOMM included a fascinating demonstration of the Multimedia Teleschool in action, and Anne Stevens of the Open University provided participants with a preview of the materials for the Open University's first French courses. The seminar was attended by a small number of guests from Belgium, Croatia and Italy, as well as Professor Dr Kurt Kohn from the University of T�bingen, who also gave a paper. Abstracts of all the papers presented are given below: it is hoped that the full versions will be included in ReCALL volume 7 number 1, May 1995.

ABSTRACTS

Dr Edith Esch, University of Cambridge: Exploring the concept of distance for language learning

In this paper it will be argued that there is a risk that current technological developments which keep stressing the availability of world-wide communication and the reduction of physical distance makes us entertain illusions about the difficulty of the task of 'language learning' and impoverished notions about the second language learning process. As physical distance between teacher and learner is overcome and wall-to-wall input made available, there is a risk that new barriers against languages are erected by learners and teachers for a number of reasons. A variety of factors involving distance which are known to influence the language learning process and/or communication - whether it concerns the source, the medium, the recipient, and/or the communication system(s) - will be evoked and illustrated to show that the physical distance between teacher and learner is likely to be a relatively insignificant factor in comparison with social distance, psychological distance and cultural istance which act as powerful mediating factors between learners and the target language.

Anne Stevens, Open University: Issues in distance teaching in languages

The session will consider the issues of broadening access to learning for a greater number of students. The expansion of learning opportunities must be accompanied by quality in the content and design of the material which underpins the success or otherwise of the experience for the learner. Distance teaching in languages exposes its own particular issues which need to be addressed. Those of providing useful and interactive experience in the language are, in themselves, challenging. Given the notoriously high drop-out rates from language learning in face-to-face classes, the questions of the motivation of learners and of their retention in the system may be of even greater concern. The key to success must lie in the quality of the support offered to the learner through the materials first and foremost and especially through the techniques of feedback, self-monitoring and personal control over the learning process. The Centre for Modern Languages at the Open University has been grappling with all of these issues and will share its experiences with conference participants.

Prof Dr Kurt Kohn, University of T�bingen: Second language communication and learning - a challenge for technology development

Learning to use a language for communication purposes is one of the most challenging cognitive and social tasks with which we human beings are faced. And the problem of creating a technological environment that is conducive to human language learning is anything but a trivial one. Technology will not be a major player in language learning and teaching unless the nature and complexity of language communication and the challenges of language learning are properly understood and taken into account. But it is also true that with recent technological advances in computer-based multimedia representation and navigation, 'intelligent' natural language processing and telematics communication, the vision of 'open' language learning in a life/work-embedded approach is now becoming a tangible reality with a promising educational and commercial perspective. For the first time in the history of language learning and teaching, we will be able to combine and integrate what up to now has largely been incompatible: self-access learning and tutoring, and second-language communication and target learning. My presentation will be based on results from two European projects in which I am involved - the LINGUA project Eloquent and the MLAP project Lotos. I will in particular talk about:

• Dimensions of discourse-based communication and implications for the modelling of language learning and tutoring;
• Conditions for 'good' language learning and the potential of advanced computer-based technologies;
• Ongoing research and development of a multimedia and telematics environment for language learning and tutoring.

Charles Jennings, CECOMM, Southampton Institute: Telematics and multimedia - enriching the distance learning experience

Distance learning can be a lonely business. Distance language learning even more so. Context and communication can be substantially diminished, or completely lost, in the distance learner's world. For the distance language learner this can mean an impoverished learning environment in which (s)he will often founder. The human communication and interactivity which is fundamental to living language can again be introduced into distance language courses through the application of advanced communication tools. 'Telematic systems', the applications built upon the synthesis of computer and communication technologies, are being used by a number of educational organisations in distance language learning. In addition, information and telematic technologies are advancing at an ever-increasing rate, and the number and sophistication of software tools and resources is growing rapidly. This means that language teachers now have the facilities, without needing the deep technical expertise, to enrich their students' distance learning environment with dynamic interactive text, images, animation and voice. It's not quite the same for the students as being there with the teacher as you study, but it is a lot better than being on your own. The presentation of this paper will show:

• Language learning in the advanced telematic environment of the Multimedia Teleschool, a large European programme which is delivering language courses to businesses across Western and Eastern Europe;
• Some examples of multimedia learning materials which have been adapted for delivery to distance language learners;
• Some software tools which make authoring multimedia language materials a quick and easy process, available to anyone who can use a word processor or talk a student through a particular problem.

Stephen Hagen, Open University: Language learners at a distance: can multimedia answer their needs?

In this presentation Stephen Hagen will outline findings on the profile and needs of open and distance language learners on the basis of work carried out at the Open University. He will then evaluate how responsive multimedia applications can be in meeting these demands and he will refer to recent work carried out for the Eloquent project in the UK.

The TELL Consortium: Update

Evaluation

Descriptions of the final TELL materials, due for delivery to the UK higher education sector in January 1996, have now been circulated to the TELL affiliate sites so that formative evaluation may take place before the summer recess. Dr Diana Laurillard, who leads the TELL evaluation programme, is currently collating and analysing the results of the first evaluation phase, enabling developers to incorporate suggestions from users into the final versions.

Conferences

Papers relating to the TELL consortium and demonstrations of TELL materials will take place at various events during 1995 including:

• CAL 95: University of Cambridge, 10-13 April (papers plus 3-hour workshop)
• WCCE 95: International Convention Centre, Birmingham, 23-28 July (presentation)
• EUROCALL 95: Universidad Polit�cnica de Valencia, 7-9 September (various papers and demonstrations)

The Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) is funded by the Higher Education Funding Councils

Computer Assisted Assessment in Higher Education

Computer Assisted Assessment in Higher Education QUESTION: Have you used computer assisted assessment software such as Question Mark, EQL Assessor or Examine, or OMR (Optical Mark Reader) systems?

If so please send a brief e-mail to:

[email protected]

We are interested in the experiences of academics using computer assisted assessment in H.E. in the UK. Please help. Thank you, Fytton Rowland, CTI Centre for Library and Information Studies.

EASA 94 Prizewinners

On ASK's WWW-Server you can find EASA program information, demonstrations and full versions of the programs which were shortlisted: http://www.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de/. The winning programs in the language learning area were:

• Hypervocab: stackware for the Macintosh for students learning English as a foreign language. Students can enter or exchange vocabulary and use games to help remember and improve their vocabulary
• Russian Dictionary in Exercises: a tutorial program to learn how to use a Russian-Foreign dictionary. Covers Russian alphabet and recogniton of parts of speech in Russian, and includes many exercises.
• PP (L'accord du participe pass�): program containing an exercise with 500 items on the inflection of the French perfect participle. These items are aranged in order of increasing difficulty and can be solved in four different ways.

CHORUS: A WWW Resource for Academic and Educational Computing in the Arts/Humanities

http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/chorus/index.html

Sponsored by PEINet, Canada, CHORUS is a new resource for academic and educational computing in the arts/humanities, aimed primarily at academics, educators, information professionals, and students. However, many CHORUS features, including a home-computing section and an Internet-tools section, are aimed at a broader audience with a less formal interest in using computers to teach/learn humanistic content (eg, history, literature, languages, philosophy, religion, classics, etc). CHORUS includes:

• Essays (from a variety of humanistic perspectives) introducing computer-related and/or network-accessible tools and resources, or discussing the impact of IT on research and education;
• Single and comparative (humanities-oriented) reviews of PC and Macintosh software of special interest to academics and educators in the humanities;
• An Internet tools section providing links and reviews to various shareware and commercial packages for PC and Macintosh computers;
• A home computing section presenting thoughtful reviews of popular educational/entertainment software with a humanities-oriented content;
• Links to humanities-related resources around the Net and a form-based search facility. These include links to the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, The Centre for Electronic texts in the Humanities, The Human Languages Page and the Oxford Humanities Computing Centre;
• There is a Computer Aided Language Learning Page, edited by Jim Duber, ESL/CALL specialist and consultant. Currently there is a Links section and a Reviews section.
• A Multilingual Word Processing and Utilities page is under construction.

CHORUS welcomes the participation of all qualified individuals. (There is always a need for energetic reviewers and editors.) For more information, please contact:

Todd Blayone, Project Coordinator
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
[email protected]

CHORUS is made possible through the sponsorship of PEINet, Canada.

Second part of this newsletter

[ Home ] [ About ] [ Events ] [ Publications ] [ Resources ] [ Services ]

C&IT Centre, Language Institute, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull  HU6 7RX, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1482 465872, Fax: +44 (0)1482 473816, Email: [email protected]

Site maintained by Fred Riley, [email protected]
Last updated 15 December 1998