Search

The 23rd EUROCALL conference was held in Cyprus from the 24th to the 27th of August 2016. The theme of the conference this year was "CALL Communities and Culture." It offered a unique opportunity to hear from real-world CALL practitioners on how they practice CALL in their communities, and how the CALL culture has developed in local and global contexts. Short papers from the conference are presented in this volume: (1) The impact of EFL teachers' mediation in wiki-mediated collaborative writing activities on student-student collaboration (Maha Alghasab); (2) Towards the development of a comprehensive pedagogical framework for pronunciation training based on adaptive automatic speech recognition systems (Saandia Ali); (3) Digital literacy and sustainability--a field study in EFL teacher development (Christopher Allen and Jan Berggren); (4) Self-evaluation using iPads in EFL teaching practice (Christopher Allen, Stella K. Hadjistassou, and David Richardson); (5) Amateur online interculturalism in foreign language education (Antonie Alm); (6) Teaching Turkish in low tech contexts: opportunities and challenges (Katerina Antoniou, Evelyn Mbah, and Antigoni Parmaxi); (7) Learning Icelandic language and culture in virtual Reykjavic: starting to talk (Branislav Bédi, Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir, Hannes Högni Vilhjálmsson, Hafdís Erla Helgadóttir, Stefán Ólafsson, and Elías Björgvinsson); (8) Investigating student choices in performing higher-level comprehension tasks using TED (Francesca Bianchi and Ivana Marenzi); (9) An evaluation of text-to-speech synthesizers in the foreign language classroom: learners' perceptions (Tiago Bione, Jennica Grimshaw, and Walcir Cardoso); (10) Quantifying CALL: significance, effect size and variation (Alex Boulton; (11) The contribution of CALL to advanced-level foreign/second language instruction (Jack Burston and Kelly Arispe); (12) Using instructional technology to integrate CEFR "can do" performance objectives into an advanced-level language course (Jack Burston, Androulla Athanasiou, and Maro Neophytou-Yiokari); (13) Exploiting behaviorist and communicative action-based methodologies in CALL applications for the teaching of pronunciation in French as a foreign language (Jack Burston, Olga Georgiadou, and Monique Monville-Burston); (14) Mobile assisted language learning of less commonly taught languages: learning in an incidental and situated way through an app (Cristiana Cervini, Olga Solovova, Annukka Jakkula, and Karolina Ruta); (15) Using object-based activities and an online inquiry platform to support learners' engagement with their heritage language and culture (Koula Charitonos, Marina Charalampidi, and Eileen Scanlon); (16) Urban explorations for language learning: a gamified approach to teaching Italian in a university context (Koula Charitonos, Luca Morini, Sylvester Arnab, Tiziana Cervi-Wilson, and Billy Brick); (17) Communicate to learn, learn to communicate: a study of engineering students' communication strategies in a mobile-based learning environment (Li Cheng and Zhihong Lu); (18) Using a dialogue system based on dialogue maps for computer assisted second language learning (Sung-Kwon Choi, Oh-Woog Kwon, Young-Kil Kim, and Yunkeun Lee); (19) Students' attitudes and motivation towards technology in a Turkish language classroom (Pelekani Chryso); (20) Vlogging: a new channel for language learning and intercultural exchanges (Christelle Combe and Tatiana Codreanu); (21) Japanese university students' self-assessment and digital literacy test results (Travis Cote and Brett Milliner); (22) Digital story (re)telling using graded readers and smartphones (Kazumichi Enokida); (23) HR4EU--a web portal for e-learning of Croatian (Matea Filko, Daša Farkaš, and Diana Hriberski); (24) Synchronous tandem language learning in a MOOC context: a study on task design and learner performance (Marta Fondo Garcia and Christine Appel); (25) What students think and what they actually do in a mobile assisted language learning context: new insights for self-directed language learning in higher education (Gustavo Garcia Botero and Frederik Questier); (26) An Audio-Lexicon Spanish-Nahuatl: using technology to promote and disseminate a native Mexican language (Rafael García-Mencía, Aurelio López-López, and Angélica Muñoz Meléndez; (27) The use of interactive whiteboards: enhancing the nature of teaching young language learners (Christina Nicole Giannikas); (28) A pre-mobility eTandem project for incoming international students at the University of Padua (Lisa Griggio and Edit Rózsavölgyi); (29) Can a "shouting" digital game help learners develop oral fluency in a second language? (Jennica Grimshaw, Walcir Cardoso, and David Waddington); (30) Feedback visualization in a grammar-based e-learning system for German: a preliminary user evaluation with the COMPASS system (Karin Harbusch and Annette Hausdörfer); (31) The multimodality of lexical explanation sequences during videoconferenced pedagogical interaction (Benjamin Holt); (32) Automatic dialogue scoring for a second language learning system (Jin-Xia Huang, Kyung-Soon Lee, Oh-Woog Kwon, and Young-Kil Kim); (33) Effects of task-based videoconferencing on speaking performance and overall proficiency (Atsushi Iino, Yukiko Yabuta, and Yoichi Nakamura); (34) Tellecollaborative games for youngsters: impact on motivation (Kristi Jauregi); (35) The Exercise: an Exercise generator tool for the SOURCe project (Kryni Kakoyianni-Doa, Eleni Tziafa, and Athanasios Naskos); (36) Students' perceptions of online apprenticeship projects at a university (Hisayo Kikuchi); (37) The effects of multimodality through storytelling using various movie clips (SoHee Kim); (38) Collaboration through blogging: the development of writing and speaking skills in ESP courses (Angela Kleanthous and Walcir Cardoso); (39) Cultivating a community of learners in a distance learning postgraduate course for language professionals (Angelos Konstantinidis and Cecilia Goria); (40) Task-oriented spoken dialog system for second-language learning (Oh-Woog Kwon, Young-Kil Kim, and Yunkeun Lee); (41) Promoting multilingual communicative competence through multimodal academic learning situations (Anna Kyppö and Teija Natri); (42) Teacher professional learning: developing with the aid of technology (Marianna Kyprianou and Eleni Nikiforou); (43) Quizlet: what the students think--a qualitative data analysis (Bruce Lander); (44) "Just facebook me": a study on the integration of Facebook into a German language curriculum (Vera Leier and Una Cunningham); (45) A survey on Chinese students' online English language learning experience through synchronous web conferencing classrooms (Chenxi Li); (46) Identifying and activating receptive vocabulary by an online vocabulary survey and an online writing task (Ivy Chuhui Lin and Goh Kawai); (47) Exploring learners' perceptions of the use of digital letter games for language learning: the case of Magic Word (Mathieu Loiseau, Cristiana Cervini, Andrea Ceccherelli, Monica Masperi, Paola Salomoni, Marco Roccetti, Antonella Valva, and Francesca Bianco); (48) Game of Words: prototype of a digital game focusing on oral production (and comprehension) through asynchronous interaction (Mathieu Loiseau, Racha Hallal, Pauline Ballot, and Ada Gazidedja); (49) PETALL in action: latest developments and future directions of the EU-funded Pan-European Task Activities for Language Learning (António Lopes); (50) Exploring EFL learners' lexical application in AWE-based writing (Zhihong Lu and Zhenxiao Li); (51) Mobile-assisted language learning and language learner autonomy (Paul A. Lyddon); (52) YELL/TELL: online community platform for teacher professional development (Ivana Marenzi, Maria Bortoluzzi, and Rishita Kalyani); (53) Leveraging automatic speech recognition errors to detect challenging speech segments in TED talks (Maryam Sadat Mirzaei, Kourosh Meshgi, and Tatsuya Kawahara); (54) Investigating the affective learning in a 3D virtual learning environment: the case study of the Chatterdale mystery (Judith Molka-Danielsen, Stella Hadjistassou, and Gerhilde Messl-Egghart); (55) Are commercial "personal robots" ready for language learning? Focus on second language speech (Souheila Moussalli and Walcir Cardoso); (56) The Digichaint interactive game as a virtual learning environment for Irish (Neasa Ni Chiaráin and Ailbhe Ní Chasaide); (57) Mingling students' cognitive abilities and learning strategies to transform CALL (Efi Nisiforou and Antigoni Parmaxi); (58) Taking English outside of the classroom through social networking: reflections on a two-year project (Louise Ohashi); (59) Does the usage of an online EFL workbook conform to Benford's law? (Mikolaj Olszewski, Kacper Lodzikowski, Jan Zwolinski, Rasil Warnakulasooriya, and Adam Black); (60) Implications on pedagogy as a result of adopted CALL practices (James W. Pagel and Stephen G. Lambacher); (61) Exploring the benefits and disadvantages of introducing synchronous to asynchronous online technologies to facilitate flexibility in learning (Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous and Fernando Loizides); (62) A CALL for evolving teacher education through 3D microteaching (Giouli Pappa and Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous); (63) Physicality and language learning (Jaeuk Park, Paul Seedhouse, Rob Comber, and Jieun Kiaer); (64) Designing strategies for an efficient language MOOC (Maria Perifanou); (65) Worldwide state of language MOOCs (Maria Perifanou); (66) A Spanish-Finnish telecollaboration: extending intercultural competence via videoconferencing (Pasi Puranen and Ruby Vurdien); (67) Developing oral interaction skills with a digital information gap activity game (Avery Rueb, Walcir Cardoso, and Jennica Grimshaw); (68) Using WebQuests as idea banks for fostering autonomy in online language courses (Shirin Sadaghian and S. Susan Marandi); (69) Integrating mobile technologies into very young second language learners' curriculum (Gulnara Sadykova, Gulnara Gimaletdinova, Liliia Khalitova, and Albina Kayumova); (70) Investigating commercially available technology for language learners in higher education within the high functioning disability spectrum (Georgia Savvidou and Fernando Loizides); (71) Learning languages in 3D worlds with Machinima (Christel Schneider); (72) What are more effective in English classrooms: textbooks or podcasts? (Jaime Selwood, Joe Lauer, and Kazumichi Enokida); (73) Mind the gap: task design and technology in novice language teachers' practice (Tom F. H. Smits, Margret Oberhofer, and Jozef Colpaert); (74) Language immersion in the self-study mode e-course (Olga Sobolev); (75) Aligning out-of-class material with curriculum: tagging grammar in a mobile music application (Ross Sundberg and Walcir Cardoso); (76) Meeting the technology standards for language teachers (Cornelia Tschichold); (77) Mobile-assisted language learning community and culture in French-speaking Belgium: the teachers' perspective (Julie Van de Vyver); (78) Classification of Swedish learner essays by CEFR levels (Elena Volodina, Ildikó Pilán, and David Alfter); (79) Mobile assisted language learning and mnemonic mapping--the loci method revisited (Ikumi Waragai, Marco Raindl, Tatsuya Ohta, and Kosuke Miyasaka); (80) CALL and less commonly taught languages--still a way to go (Monica Ward); (81) Demystifying pronunciation with animation (Monica Ward); (82) The effects of utilizing corpus resources to correct collocation errors in L2 writing--Students' performance, corpus use and perceptions (Yi-ju Wu); (83) A social constructionist approach to teaching and learning vocabulary for Italian for academic purposes (Eftychia Xerou, Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous, and Antigoni Parmaxi); (84) Flip-J: development of the system for flipped jigsaw supported language learning (Masanori Yamada, Yoshiko Goda, Kojiro Hata, Hideya Matsukawa, and Seisuke Yasunami); and (85) "Check your Smile", prototype of a collaborative LSP website for technical vocabulary (Nadia Yassine-Diab, Charlotte Alazard-Guiu, Mathieu Loiseau, Laurent Sorin, and Charlotte Orliac). An author index is included. (Individual papers contain references.)

The 25th European Association of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (EUROCALL) conference was hosted by Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of Southampton, in the United Kingdom, from the 23rd to the 26th of August 2017. The theme of the conference was "CALL in a climate of change." The theme encompassed the notion of how practice and research in CALL is responding to shifting global circumstances which impact education, including developments arising from economic, political, or environmental change. It cut across areas including considerations for teacher training, competitive educational models, open education, new models for blended learning, collaboration, mobile learning, creative and innovative pedagogy, data analytics, students' needs and sustainability--and crucially, it looked to the future with optimism. The programme was packed with over 200 sessions related to this topic, and it included a large number of workshops, pecha kucha, posters, and symposia. This volume offers a snapshot of this dynamic landscape and contains 60 of the papers presented. This volume reflects the wide variety of topics featured at the conference and the high quality of contributions. (Individual papers contain references.)

The 2016 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (CSC), a joint conference with the Ohio Foreign Language Association, focused on fostering language and culture connections within and outside the language classroom and across the curriculum at all levels. A variety of approaches aimed at improving skills in language, literacy, and critical thinking were highlighted in order to engage students and prepare them for global citizenship in the 21st century. This 2016 report entitled "Fostering Connections, Empowering Communities, Celebrating the World," contains 12 articles that focus on fostering connections between and among language students and teachers, language, culture and content, the language classroom and the world and between K-12 and higher education. Through the integration of meaningful curricula, engaging learning tasks, media and technology, authentic materials, and cultural products in the language classroom, teachers can connect their language classrooms with the authentic lives of their learners. All of these articles underscore the important role of connecting learners with the target language and culture through a variety of means aimed at improving language skills, knowledge and attitudes of language learners in order to prepare them for global citizenship in the 21st century.

The 2015 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (CSCTFL) was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota together with the Minnesota Council on the Teaching of Languages and Cultures, who served as local host. This year's theme underscores the transformative nature of learning a foreign language. As language teachers we have a great responsibility to provide our students with opportunities to learn and explore languages and cultures in ways that foster intercultural communicative competence. The 2015 conference highlighted strategies, practices, and approaches that world language educators can use to help students develop the attitudes, skills, and knowledge necessary to interact with others in our global community. The CSCTFL 2015 conference featured 35 workshops and more than 200 sessions. Nine of the 16 Central States were represented by "Best of" sessions. 21 sessions from the 2014 conference were presented again at the 2015 conference as "All-Stars." The session and workshop topics represented at the 2015 conference included technology in the classroom, intercultural competence, assessment, advocacy, best practices, and the use of literature, art, and music in language classes. The authors whose articles are included in the 2015 CSCTFL "Report" addressed the 2015 conference theme, "Learn Languages Explore Cultures Transform Lives" by focusing on those elements that transform foreign language teaching and learning. The articles provide the reader with innovative ideas and approaches for world language instruction that will assist teachers in transforming their classrooms to meet the needs of the 21st century learners.

The 2014 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages took place in St. Louis, Missouri with the cooperation of the Foreign Language Association of Missouri. The 2014 conference focused on ways in which foreign language teachers, "unlock" or help to open up lines of communication between their students and people who speak a language other than the native language of their students. Foreign language teachers do so not only by helping students to learn how to express themselves through oral and written communication, but also through cultural knowledge of the target culture. For students to become globally competent citizens, they need to know not only how to communicate through oral and written communication; they must also understand the nuances of a culture. An understanding of the products, practices, and perspectives of a culture are equally important to function in a given culture. The CSCTFL 2014 conference featured 28 workshops and more than 170 sessions. Nine of the 17 central states were represented by "Best of…" sessions. Several presenters from the 2013 conference returned to re-present their session as an "All-Star." The sessions and workshop topics represented at the 2014 conference included the connection to Common Core in the foreign language classroom, the use of technology, teaching for communicative competency, lesson planning, assessment, the integration of culture in the curriculum, and the use of literature, art, music, and film in language classes. The articles in this report pertain to developing communicative competency and cultural competency. By focusing on developing communicative competency and cultural competency, foreign language teachers are able to shape their students into citizens who will be globally competent and be able to communicate and interact effectively in a global society. The authors explain how to achieve these goals through the use of technology in teaching, studying abroad, the use of target language in the classroom, and the role of a textbook in the classroom while promoting communication.

The 2008 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages focused on learning about the diverse backgrounds and needs of today's students. The 2009 Conference continued that focus and added diversity by instructors in using a variety of teaching methods, strategies, themes, technologies, and assessments. Presenters from all 17 states that make up the Central States Conference offered a diverse program, including "Best of…" sessions selected by their respective states. "All-Star" 2008 sessions chosen by the Central States Conference Board were invited to share their expertise again with 2009 conference attendees. There were workshops and sessions for language professionals at all levels and languages. This year's volume offers a varied set of articles representing some of the best practices and innovations in language teaching and learning. Topics range from technology to travel, and should offer something of interest to all members of the readership.

The 2008 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, a joint conference with the Michigan World Language Association, focused on learning about the diverse backgrounds and needs of today's students and discovering new ways to help them succeed in reaching the goal of language proficiency. A wide variety of workshops and sessions offered practical advice on how to deal with reluctant learners on a variety of levels. Immersion-type workshops and sessions were offered to help participants brush up on their language skills, and participants were brought up-to-date on topics such as foreign language advocacy, advanced placement, technology, assessment, culture, brain-based learning, and much more. In addition to "Best of" presentations from 15 states, the program included several encore presentations from last year's "All-Star" presenters. This volume offers the reader a wealth of research based approaches and strategies to language teaching and learning designed to assist the language educator in creating a learning environment that will motivate and engage all students in the language classroom. These articles focus on best practices representing theory-based instruction designed to optimize language communication skills and cultural knowledge for all learners.

The theme for the 2005 Central States Conference, "Year of Languages," and the title of this volume, "The Year of Languages: Challenges, Changes, and Choices," reinforce the commitment and passion that language educators demonstrate in their profession. Whether teaching in a small rural school or developing innovative programs in university settings, educators in the Central States are meeting challenges and instigating changes with creativity and enthusiasm. This volume celebrates those efforts. The 25 papers herein are organized around five key themes: (1) Year of Languages; (2) Challenges in PK-20 World Language Education; (3) Changes in Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction; (4) Choices to Create Real-World Learning; and (5) Celebrations of Language Learning.

The title, "Making Connections: From the Classroom to the World Beyond", underscores one of the basic principles of language teaching echoed in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) "Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century". Teachers are constantly making connections in their language classes: to their students, to the curriculum, to other cultures, to teaching practices, to other disciplines, and to the global community. These connections are based on an infrastructure of language teaching and learning that involves research, theory, classroom practice, activities, and events. Over the past fifty years the profession has undergone enormous changes brought about by new research in second language acquisition as well as new directions in language teaching and learning. Once isolated from other disciplines, world languages now reaches out to them and incorporates them into the curriculum and into daily classroom activities. Furthermore, e-mail and the internet have added vast new dimensions to language teaching repertoire, enabling teachers to reach out to the global community in ways they were unable to previously. The articles are divided in sections that reflect and elaborate on the concept of making connections: (1) Making Connections to Program; (2) Making Connections to Research; (3) Making Connections to the Classroom; and (4) Making Connections to the Classroom and Beyond.

This issue includes the following articles: "Detaching Discourse Functions from Functional Projections" (Dora Alexopoulou); "Interface Conditions on Child Language: A Crosslinguistic Look at Genitives" (Sharon Armon-Lotem, Stephen Crain); "Formal Features and Movement at PF" (Ralph C. Blight); "Semantic Features of Determiners: Toward an Account for Complements of D" (Jocelyn Cohan); "Discourse Deixis and Anaphora Resolution in German" (Miriam Eckert); "The Syntax of IPP-Constructions and the Structure of the Lower Middlefield in Westgermanic" (Roland Hinterholzl); "Pre-Boundary Lengthening: Universal or Language Specific? The Case of Hungarian" (Beth Ann Hockey, Zsuzsanna Fagyal); "Some Reconstruction Riddles" (Howard Lasnik); "The Life and Death of Derivational Morphology: Reduplication in Oroqen (Fengxiang Li, Lindsay J. Whaley); "Chains and Phono-Logical Form" (Jeffrey Lidz, William J. Idsardi); "Deixis and Interactional Construction of Context" (Simona Pekarek); "Complex Small Clauses" (Joan Rafel); "Sloppy Definites (Ann M. Reed); "An Event Syntactic Account of Delimitation in Mandarin" (Chuanchih Wang); and "Restructuring Control" (Susi Wurmbrand). References are appended to each article. (KFT)

This book consists of eleven papers presented at the 1975 Central States Conference. The principal objective of the conference was to examine the trend for human relations, ethnic studies, and bilingual-bicultural education in American education and the new interest in languages not usually taught in the past. The papers include: (1) "We're All Ethnics: Hyphenated Americans, Professional Ethnics, and Ethnics by Attraction," by Lorraine A. Strasheim; (2) "The Analysis of Language and Familiar Cultures," by Nelson Brooks; (3) "Linguistic Diversity in the Classroom," by Geneva Smitherman; (4) "Analyzing French Culture and Interpreting Some of its Manifestations," by Jacqueline C. Elliot; (5) "Analyzing Hispanic Culture: Some Implications for Teaching," by Yvonne de Wright; (6) "A Look at Americans of German Descent," by La Vern J. Rippley; (7) "Newspapers and Magazines in the Second Language Classroom," by Helen L. Jorstad; (8) "Evaluating Cultural Learnings," by Robert C. Lafayette and Renate Schulz; (9) "Sexism in French Language Textbooks," by Betty Schmitz; (10) "Preparing Teachers for Cultural Pluralism," by Margaret Shryer; and (11) "Study-Travel Abroad," by Sue Reynolds. (CFM)

This short paper reports on the preliminary findings of a study into the use of Online Translators (OTs) by university language students. Students of Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish and their teachers responded to comparative surveys on their respective use and evaluation of OTs for L2 writing in formal language learning contexts. Findings indicate that teachers have little awareness of the range of strategies students apply when using OTs as writing tools. Concerns of OT misuse for cheating or as a replacement for language learning seem largely unfounded. Students, however, perceive a lack of guidance for the appropriate use of OTs. Preliminary findings suggest that teachers need to review their assumptions about students' OT practices and that both students and teachers would benefit from technical and pedagogical OT training. [For the complete volume, "CALL and Professionalisation: Short Papers from EUROCALL 2021 (29th, Online, August 26-27, 2021)," see ED616972.]