Friday, March 25, 2005

Tim Xie's presentation

Tim Xie, from Cal State Long Beach, shared the following ideas with the Modern Language faculty here at Marietta College.

Now CALL is being called TELL (Technology ENhanced Language Learning).

Aurolog is a technology that recognizes and appropriately responds to language learners. It's called TELL me more, a pun on the verb "tell" (because the learners speak to the program) and the concept of TELL.

Do we need TELL?
No significant difference phenomenon. (1997...reporting from 1986 to 1996).
Morrison (1999)"... we have no choice but to make technology an integrated tool."

Skeptics: IHEP (too many questions are unaddressed or unanswered so we can't properly make informed judgments).

Tim's recommendation...online education is not recommended for elementary language learners.

ALN Magazine (Volume 4 #2, 2000)Impediments to adoption of web-based course delivery among university faculty.

Tim's experience:
  • Convenience of access to texts sound, images, and interactive drills.
  • Anytime/anywhere access for highly motivated students.
  • Facilitates exchange and sharing of products, thoughts, and ideas among instructors globally. (email, Internet, etc.)
What is available over the Internet?
  • Online vs. Offline
    • CD-ROMs (offline)
  • Textbook-dependent vs. textbook dependent
    • Publisher-created materials (textbook-dependent)
    • Instructor-created materials (idioms, phrases, etc.)
Who makes these?
  • Professors
  • Commercial vendors
  • Volunteers and hobbyists (i.e., students)
On the Internet you can find language-specific tools (drills and/or exercises) and communication tools that can support instruction that can be used with other areas as well (chat, IM, etc.)

www.word2word.com (Free Online Language Courses)

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