Language Learning Course Research Articles

The role of the electronic portfolio in enhancing Information and Communication Technology and English language skills: the voices of six Malaysian undergraduates

This study investigated the effects of the construction and development of electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) on a small user population at a public university in Malaysia. The study was based on a three-month Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and language learning course offered to the undergraduates of the university. One of the key components of the course was the construction and development of an e-portfolio. The purpose of this study is to uncover the impact of this class project on student development of computer and language learning skills. The problems faced in the developmental process will also be discussed. A qualitative case study approach involving interviews with six respondents was utilised in collecting and analysing the data. A questionnaire was used to support the qualitative data. The findings revealed that the e-portfolios had a positive impact on the student development of computer and writing skills.

Experiences and evaluation of a blended learning concept for learning Chinese in higher education

The open-source learning management system ILIAS has gained widespread popularity in educational institutions across Europe. At the University of Passau it was used in a two-year project for implementing a Chinese language learning course. Chinese is a difficult foreign language for German speakers to grasp. There are many distinct difficulties, which we aim to overcome with our Chinese course. This article will describe the development process and our experience in using and adopting ILIAS for learning Chinese, and the evaluation of the blended learning course. The paper shows evaluation results and experiments conducted during and after the project Chinese for the Workplace. Generally they are based on questionnaires and interviews to identify problems and benefits of the Chinese course.

CALL (computer assisted language learning) wiki

This paper discusses the importance of the use of new technologies as part of the pedagogy of language teacher training courses. It examines how wikis were used in a computer assisted language learning (CALL) course, which constituted a fourth-year compulsory component of a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature course. The method of examination used is presented and the data is discussed to establish students’ perceptions of the usefulness of the use of new technologies in their learning, and more specifically the contribution of wiki in their CALL teacher training.

Learning styles based on the different cultural background of KFL learners in online learning.

It is imperative to analyze learning styles based on learners’ cultural backgrounds when designing successful online learning courses. The present study investigated the learning styles preferences of learners who have diverse cultural backgrounds in an online language learning environment. For this purpose, the study employed the Felder and Silverman’s Learning Styles Model and examined sixty five international students who enrolled in a Korean language course at a university’s language education institute in Seoul, Korea. The participants were culturally diverse and represented numerous countries, which were categorized according to six cultural clusters: China, Japan, Middle East, other Asia, America, and Europe. The online language learning course was analyzed using the active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, sequential/global and visual/verbal dimensions of the model. The participants’ learning style preferences were investigated using a questionnaire. A one-way ANOVA was conducted to compare the effect of cultural backgrounds on learning style preferences of each section. In addition, MANOVA and post hoc multiple comparison of means tests (Scheffe test) were conducted. The results demonstrate significant cultural group differences in learning style preferences of learners of Korean language with diverse cultural backgrounds.

Learning to teach online or learning to become an online teacher: an exploration of teachers’ experiences in a blended learning course

AbstractA key role in the successful implementation of any learning approach is played by teachers, so how well blended learning works will depend largely on how well teachers make the transition from their traditional face-to-face classroom roles to the wider more complex role that blended learning requires. The additional skills and the forging of a new professional identity might not come easily to all practitioners.This paper evaluates the impact that the introduction of blended learning in a distance language learning course has had on teachers. It presents and discusses findings from a small-scale evaluation study which compared quantitative and qualitative data gathered through a survey and a small number of interviews with participant observations from the researcher and the institutional end-of-course debriefing report.The paper argues that whilst technological challenges and the sheer amount of change that teachers were faced with were largely responsible for some of the negative attitudes reflected in teachers’ opinions about the course, a less obvious, broader explanation for the difficulties that teachers encountered might be found in the way that learning, teaching and training are conceptualised by both teachers and the institution.It is proposed that a transmission of knowledge approach to training fails to acknowledge and properly support the transformation of teachers’ identity that results from moving from traditional classroom-based teaching to online teaching. The shift goes beyond the acquisition of ICT skills and requires a pedagogical understanding of the affordances of the new medium and an acceptance by the teacher of his or her new role and identity.

The roles of Second Life in a college computer-assisted language learning (CALL) course in Taiwan, ROC

Various language learning projects using Second Life (SL) have been documented; still, their specific learning potentials, particularly in English as a foreign language (EFL) context, remain to be explored. The current study aims to add one piece of empirical evidence on how SL can be infused into a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) course for 25 college students through task design in a limited Internet connection context. Four tasks – orientation of SL and chatting, pedagogical activities, peer review, and an SL tour – were designed with their influence examined. Although students' frustration about the unstable Internet connection was shown from responses of an evaluation questionnaire, they confirmed the benefits of using SL for English learning and teaching. SL provides affordances of interaction and immersion, which are conducive to their English learning, and SL can easily establish an authentic environment for communication. It is argued, as supported in the previous literature of various educational contexts, that sound pedagogy with appropriate tasks, instead of 3D virtual worldsoftware alone, guides SL applications in the multi-member community (instructors, teachers assistants, students, and other users not in this class) advancing toward language learning objectives or sense-making in student learning.

A study of the relationships among learning styles, participation types, and performance in programming language learning supported by online forums

This study is focused on the relationships among learning styles, participation types, and learning performance for programming language learning supported by an online forum. Kolb's learning style inventory was used in this study to determine a learner's learning type: 'Diverger', 'Assimilator', 'Converger', and 'Accommodator'. Social Learning Theory was also used to define four participation types. These types in turn were used to describe the learning associated with the use of online forums: 'Replier', 'Asker', 'Watcher', and 'No activity'. A total of 144 students participated in this experiment as part of a half semester ASP.NET programming language learning courses. The course contained an online forum for supporting the students' social activities and participation. In this study, 'learning score' and 'satisfaction' were used to measure learning performance. The results of this study were the following: (1) different learning styles were associated with significantly different learning scores and that the 'Accommodator' style was associated with superior learning scores; (2) participation types were also associated with significantly different learning scores and that the 'Replier' type is associated with superior learning scores; (3) learning satisfaction is not significantly different among the different learning styles or different participation types, but the average is significantly higher than average values (3.5) of 7-point Likert scale; (4) there is no significant association between learning styles and participation types. Explanations and discussions of these results are offered. Based on the results of this study, we propose that programming language learning, supported with online forums and students' active participation, increases learning performance as measured by student learning scores.

The Importance of Affective Factors in Self-Access Language Learning Courses

In this short summary, we investigate the importance of learners’ emotional involvement in self-directed learning. We begin by briefly examining the literature related to affective factors in self-access language learning. We then describe two examples of institutions with self-access centres that place particular importance on affective factors in courses of self-directed study. The first example is in a university in Japan, where affective strategies are introduced through self-directed learning modules. The second example is in a university in Mexico, where educators are investigating how feelings about self-access language learning can change over time.

Educational Software and English Teaching Courseware: Promising Panaceas?

The paper investigates the definition of some widely used terms related to Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) as they are viewed in the area of English language learning-teaching. Among other terms, particular attention is paid to the teaching courseware in which a complete course plus its supplementary materials are accessible through CDs. Using the related literature as base, the authors intend to investigate certain merits and demerits of teaching courseware or other educational software or hardware applied in language classrooms. Finally, in the light of several insightful lessons from educational software experts, they discuss how such significant principles have been neglected in the development and dissemination of the English teaching courseware in Malaysia and how its usage in language learning courses may be enhanced.

Students’ Motivation toward Computer-Based Language Learning

The present article examined some factors affecting the motivation level of the preparatory school students in using a web-based computer-assisted language-learning course. The sample group of the study consisted of 126 English-as-a-foreign-language learners at a preparatory school of a state university. After performing statistical analyses (t-test and analysis of variance) to the data, it was found that there were no statistical differences between such selected demographic variables as learners’ age, gender, grades, compulsory and optional status, type of high school, parents’ educational status, the period of the participants’ language-learning process, and experience of computer use The only variable found to be statistically significant was the degree of importance of learning English for the participants; more than half the participants possess moderately high motivation level. Finally, some practical recommendations were noted.

Beliefs about Self-Access Learning: Reflections on 15 years of change

This paper examines the degree to which the beliefs of stakeholders in self-access language learning in tertiary institutions in Hong Kong have changed during a 15 year period. To identify changes a comparison is made between the findings of a research study conducted in the mid-1990s in five self-access centres (Gardner and Miller, 1997) and the current situation. The following four key areas are examined: materials for self-access learning, integration of self-access centres and language learning courses, motivation and the effectiveness of a self-access centre. The comparison reveals that the degree of change in these four areas vary. We reflect on the causes of change.

The effect of a computer‐assisted language learning course on pre‐service English teachers’ practice teaching

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted to find out the effect of an undergraduate‐level computer‐assisted language learning (CALL) course on pre‐service English teachers’ practice teaching. Content analysis techniques were used to examine the resulting responses to the interview questions and the lesson plans for the effects of the course. Findings indicate that the participants have benefited from the topics discussed in the course and half of them tried to make use of the call tools in their practice teaching. They further state that they are willing to use these tools in their future career; however, they face some problems such as lack of equipment, support and modelling. Therefore, teacher educators and the faculties need to take a serious and wary approach to the implementation of CALL as it requires close attention, critically selected software, teachers’ and learners’ positive attitudes and training and commitment.

Blended language learning in tertiary education

This paper examines the supporting and enhancing role of technology in language learning and teaching in a higher education institution in Slovenia. Despite the fact that the vast majority of foreign language teaching is still carried out in face-to-face environments, a growing extent of foreign language teaching in a number of tertiary education institutions has moved, at least partly, online. In this paper, the development of e-learning practices in Slovenia is described first, together with the evolution of computer technologies – from multimedia to the internet – and their potential for language learning and teaching purposes. Against this background, the practical application of the Blended Language Learning (BLL) experience at the Faculty of Management Koper is discussed. The paper also addresses the changing role of teachers in blended language teaching/learning environments and analyses the opinions of students who participated in a combination of Face-to-Face (F2F) and Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) courses and expressed their opinions on the BLL experience in a questionnaire.

Exploring the technological pedagogical content knowledge of pre-service teachers in language education

The teacher education programs are concerned not only with pre-service teachers’ use of technology but also with their development of knowledge related to the use of technology as a pedagogical tool in teaching; that is, the development of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK), modeled by Mishra and Koehler (2006). The purpose of this study is to explore how TPCK develops in pre-service English-as-a-Foreign Language (EFL) teachers enrolled in the required computer-assisted language learning (CALL) course. Interviews were gathered to explore the progress of their TPCK during the course. Development of TPCK in the participants is evidenced in their analysis of different functions of TPCK such as understanding what it means to teach English language with technology; knowledge of instructional strategies; knowledge of students’ learning; knowledge of materials that integrate technology in language teaching.

Vocabulary on the move: Investigating an intelligent mobile phone-based vocabulary tutor

Mobile learning has long been identified as one of the natural directions in which CALL is expected to move, and as smaller portable technologies become less expensive, lighter and more powerful, they have the potential to become a more integral part of language learning courses as opposed to the more supplemental role often assigned to computer labs. Mobile phones have been the topic of a number of recent studies, including for learning pragmatic phrases via mobile email, and as electronic flash cards. With the development of mobile systems that can access the Internet, more sophisticated applications which allow the use of databases and interactive web content have been made possible. The current study describes one such application, investigating the use of a prototype mobile-based intelligent vocabulary tutor system by learners in an advanced EFL class. Learners used the tutor to complete vocabulary activities in a variety of task formats through either their mobile phone or through a computer, and the system kept logs of all access to the system. A profile of each learner was created in terms of the vocabulary that they had difficulty with, and presented these items to the learners more frequently than items that were less likely to cause learners problems. Learner access logs to the vocabulary activities and the learner profiles were analysed, and a survey was administered to learners at the completion of the project. The results are discussed in terms of learner usage patterns and learner perspectives regarding each platform.

Collaborative Composition in a Foreign Language with Handheld Computing and Web Tools

Writing applications are currently designed for desktop personal computers. Mobile devices like PDAs or smart phones are increasingly being used for mobile applications such as access to information sources or local work on the device, but they are seldom used for collaborative tasks. Here we present AULA and AWLA, two applications that put mobile devices and collaborative educational environments together inside and outside the classroom. They are designed under the paradigm of collaborative composition writing in language learning courses, in particular English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

Using Online Discussion Groups in a CALL Teacher Training Course

This paper reports the results of a study that examined an online discussion group established for a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) course and investigated patterns of interactions generated through the online discussion and participants’ attitudes toward the computer-mediated communication (CMC) activity. The participants in the study were 24 English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL), 1 French and 1 Japanese in-service teachers. The findings indicate that individual postings consisted of a large number of fully task-focused messages with a small number of partially task-focused contributions and very few off-task contributions. From the content of the postings, six message types were identified. Among these types, interactive messages were exchanged between the teachers, mainly for the purposes of giving opinions/ideas and expressing support. The teachers’ overall reactions to the online discussion group activities were positive. Most teachers considered the activities to be constructive, enjoyable and valuable. They agreed that online discussions were a good way of learning CALL and CMC could facilitate collaborative learning. This study confirms that CMC can provide teachers with communication channels for sharing ideas and resources and collaborating with their fellow teachers.

Second Language Acquisition Theories as a Framework for Creating Distance Learning Courses

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Reusable XML technologies and the development of language learning materials

There are many CALL resources available today but often they need to be adapted for level or culture. CALL practitioners would like to reuse currently existing material rather than reinvent the wheel, but often this is not possible. Thus, they end up building CALL material, both language content and software, from scratch. This is inefficient in terms of CALL practitioners’ time and as Felix (1999) points out, there is no point ‘doing badly’ what has already been done well. Why can’t we reuse what already exists? Often the language content is hard-wired in the software and cannot be modified or the CALL material comes as an executable which is hard or impossible to change. Authoring tools can provide a degree of flexibility, but often focus on particular parts of the language learning process (e.g. interactive exercises) and the associated language content cannot, in general, easily be exported into other formats and presentation software. One solution to this problem is provided by XML technologies. They provide a strict separation between data and processing. Thus, three types of reuse are possible: reuse of the data processing engine (i.e. the XSL processing files), reuse of the language content structure (i.e. the XML data files) and reuse the linguistic resources (i.e. the language content). In this paper, an example is given of a CALL template that has been developed using XML technologies. The template provides a structure into which the language content can be slotted and a processing engine to act upon the data to create CALL material. The template was developed for the production of CALL materials for Endangered Languages (ELs), but could be used for MCTLs (Most Commonly Taught Languages) and LCTLs (Less Commonly Taught Languages) also. It has been used to develop a language learning course for Nawat (a language of El Salvador), Akan (a Ghanaian language) and Irish, demonstrating the reusability of the language content structure as well as proving the reusability of the processing engine provided by the template. A further reusable feature is the ability to create courseware in different media (Internet, CD and print) from the same source language content.

Intercultural Education and Foreign Language Learning: Issues of racism, identity and modernity

This article examines a particular attempt to represent ethnic and cultural diversity in the context of materials produced for advanced adult learners by the Open University. The course materials are designed to support distance learning of French language and culture. The authors argue that language learning has a particular political importance within the context of Europe, and note that foreign language learning policies are intended to have an impact on the development of citizenship and democratic participation. One unit of the Open University French course, Mises au point , is analysed for its representation of minorities, its perspectives on questions of identity and its treatment of racism. The authors note the links between racism and discourses of modernity and identity. Language learning is increasingly recognised as a reflexive process which aims to help students to gain new perspectives on their own society. The ways in which students are invited to engage with the materials are considered and it is concluded that positive representations of multiculturalism within language learning courses are likely to prove inadequate in enabling students to identify the barriers to democratic participation. The themes of immigration, integration and identity are introduced in the course materials but consideration of informal and structural barriers to participation is limited. It is argued that this may do little to encourage students to deepen their own understandings of race, modernity and identities in their own society.