Computer-assisted Project Research Articles

Correcting spellings in second language learners’ computer-assisted collaborative writing

The present study uses multimodal conversation analysis to examine how pupils studying English as a foreign language make spelling corrections in real time while doing collaborative computer-assisted project work. Unlike most previous related investigations, this study focuses on the process rather than evaluating the final product. The findings establish how the initiation and correction of (perceived) spelling errors involve varying configurations of three agents: the pupil currently typing, the other pupil and the computer software. Almost 80% of spelling corrections are carried out by the pupil typing with no intervention from the other pupil or the spellchecker. It is argued that here both the ‘triadic ecology’ and the timing of correction trajectories entail a structural preference for self-correction, which in turn reduces the affordances of the spellchecker and collaboration. Nevertheless, the spellchecker and the other pupil do play a role in catching potential misspellings that the typist has missed. Moreover, rather than right-clicking to activate the spellchecker’s menu of spelling suggestions, the typist typically deletes back to before the faulty letter(s) and then re-types words, which suggests the importance of progressivity of the typing flow as well as no need for the spellchecker’s assistance.

Notes on the Functions of "Acaso," "Quiza(s)" and "Tal Vez" in American Spanish

'Quizi(s),' 'Tal vez': Free Variants? (Hispania, 55 [May, 1972], 320-27) examined in detail the distribution and function of the three Spanish equivalents to English 'perhaps. He demonstrated that acaso, especially in Spanish America, is rarely followed the subjunctive, and that it frequently appears in rhetorical questions where it has the meaning by chance. The data indicated that quiza(s) is followed more frequently the subjunctive than the indicative; but the subjunctive is largely confined to sentences with future time reference. The article stated that tal vez, the most frequent adverb of possibility in American Spanish, governs subjunctive more often that indicative. This analysis, part of a broader study, suggested to me a pilot survey of acaso, quizd(s) and tal vez which might point out trends to be researched in a comprehensive, computer-assisted project. My sample consists of twentieth-century Spanish American works, geographically distributed throughout the area, and including all genres. The sample includes ten novels, 15 dramas, ten essays and seven issues each of three different newspapers. See the list of works consulted at the end of this study.) I determined for each adverb and for the entire sample the percentage of subjunctive vs. indicative constructions and of present-reference vs. past. I also calculated the percentage represented each tense in the entire sample and for each adverb. I then broke down the re-

Clio and computers: Moving into phase II, 1970–1972

Historians frequently take stock of the state of their discipline. They update their bibliographies, compose long historiographic essays, and regularly argue the virtues or vices of new tendencies, conceptions, and methods. Given such predilections, the intrusion of quantitative and computer-assisted approaches into the historian's world has not gone unnoticed. Robert Swierenga's exhaustive and able survey published in 1970 capped a literature of at least a dozen ever longer and more detailed articles examining, promoting, or taking issue with the electronic age's contribution to historical scholarship.' The state of the art was clear enough. More and more historians were utilizing quantification and computer technology to deal with large masses of data and stubborn historical problems; institutional developments kept pace to provide a necessary frame for this research, and reports of substantive findings were beginning to appear. Generally, computer-assisted historical research appeared to be, as of 1970, healthy and growing, with some problems not unknown in infancy, but with a sanguine future as a "doorway to a new world of scholarship."2 In the two years since Swierenga's survey this pattern has continued. Learned journals and newsletters abound with descriptions of computer-assisted projects, new research grants, and conferences of committed and like-minded individuals. More crucial, a proliferating list of articles, reviews, and books report the fruits of a great number of investigations. Institutional developments also reflect an up-curve. The Inter-University Consortium for Political Research remains a model of the kind of institutional service