Monthly Archives: April 2009
Preparing language teachers to teach language online: a look at skills, roles, and responsibilities
This paper reviews and critiques an existing skills framework for online language teaching. This critique is followed by an alternative framework for online language teaching skills. This paper also uses a systems view to look at the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders in an online learning system. Four major recommendations are provided to help language teacher training programs prepare future language teachers for online language teaching.
Spoken interaction in online and face-to-face language tutorials
While interaction in online language learning in the area of written computer-mediated communication is well researched, studies focusing on interaction in synchronous online audio environments remain scarce. For this reason, this paper seeks to map the nature and level of interpersonal interaction in both online and the face-to-face language tutorials used at the Open University, UK. A coding system for mapping interaction against the tenets of SLA is proposed and applied to sample tutorials. Initial analyses of data reveal differences with regards to the level of student participation, the use of the target language (L2) and the degree of tutor control and focus.
The effectiveness of computer assisted pronunciation training for foreign language learning by children
This study investigates whether a computer assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) system can help young learners improve word-level pronunciation skills in English as a foreign language at a level comparable to that achieved through traditional teacher-led training. The pronunciation improvement of a group of learners of 11 years of age receiving teacher-fronted instruction was compared to that of a group receiving computer assisted pronunciation training by means of a system including an automatic speech recognition component. Results show that 1) pronunciation quality of isolated words improved significantly for both groups of subjects, and 2) both groups significantly improved in pronunciation quality of words that were considered particularly difficult to pronounce and that were likely to have been unknown to them prior to the training. Training with a computer-assisted pronunciation training system with a simple automatic speech recognition component can thus lead to short-term improvements in pronunciation that are comparable to those achieved by means of more traditional, teacher-led pronunciation training.
The other C in CMC: What alternative data sources can tell us about text-based synchronous computer mediated communication and language learning
Most research on text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) in language learning has used output logs as the sole data source. I review interactionist and sociocultural SCMC research, focusing in particular on the question of technological determinism, and conclude that, from whichever perspective, reliance on output logs leads to an impoverished picture of the experience of SCMC users and of phenomena relevant to learning. The assumption that output logs are an adequate data source fails to give due weight to the specificities of this form of communication, in particular the constraints and affordances of the computer interface. I examine the potential contribution of other data sources, providing by way of illustration an analysis of sample eye-tracker data from a tandem SCMC
Top of the Pods—In Search of a Podcasting “Podagogy” for Language Learning
The popularization of portable media players such as the iPod, and the delivery of audio and video content through content management software such as iTunes mean that there is a wealth of language learning resources freely available to users who may download them and use them anywhere at any time. These resources vary greatly in quality and follow different approaches to learning. This paper provides a taxonomy of podcast resources, reviews materials in the light of Second Language Acquisition theories, argues for better design, and outlines directions for future research.
Using audioblogs to assist English-language learning: an investigation into student perception
This pilot study investigates how the use of audioblogs can help to meet an instructor’s need to improve instruction in English as a second language (ESL). In this study, the instructor uses audioblogs to manage oral assignments, to interact with learners, and to evaluate performance outcomes. Learners record oral assignments through cellular phones, and maintain an individual audioblog in which they submit and archive the oral assignments. The instructor interacts with each learner through the individual audioblog to enhance his or her learning according to individual needs. Using mixed methodology (survey, open-ended questions, interview, and analysis of blogs), this study explores how the instructor’s interaction with learners through audioblogs improves learners’ oral English performance. The results indicate that the use of audioblogs meets the instructor’s instructional needs, providing an efficient and effective way to evaluate students’ oral performance and permitting individualized oral feedback. In addition, learners enjoy the ease of using audioblogs and believe that audioblogs assist their language-learning experience. This study also discusses the challenges that users of audioblogs face in the process of English-language instruction, and the implications of audioblog in language
Gamma knife radiosurgery for vestibular schwannomas: Results of hearing preservation in relation to the cochlear radiation dose
Conclusions:
Hearing preservation is correlated to the maximal radiation dose at the cochlea. The purpose of developing GKRS techniques was to avoid collateral damage in healthy tissues. This study emphasizes the need for exact radiation planning to reduce the cochlear radiation dose if the hearing is to be preserved. Laryngoscope, 2009
from The Laryngoscope
Bilingualism reduces native-language interference during novel-word learning.
The goal of the present work was to examine the effects of bilingualism on adults’ ability to resolve cross-linguistic inconsistencies in orthography-to-phonology mappings during novel-word learning. English monolinguals and English–Spanish bilinguals learned artificially constructed novel words that overlapped with English orthographically but diverged from English phonologically. Native-language orthographic information presented during learning interfered with encoding of novel words in monolinguals but not in bilinguals. In general, bilinguals outperformed monolinguals on the word-learning task. These findings indicate that knowledge of 2 languages facilitates word learning and shields English–Spanish bilinguals from interference associated with cross-linguistic inconsistencies in letter-to-phoneme mappings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
from Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
Investigating the cause of language regularization in adults: Memory constraints or learning effects?.
When language learners are exposed to inconsistent probabilistic grammatical patterns, they sometimes impose consistency on the language instead of learning the variation veridically. The authors hypothesized that this regularization results from problems with word retrieval rather than from learning per se. One prediction of this, that easing the demands of lexical retrieval leads to less regularization, was tested. Adult learners were exposed to a language containing inconsistent probabilistic patterns and were tested with either a standard production task or one of two tasks that reduced the demands of lexical retrieval. As predicted, participants tested with the modified tasks more closely matched the probability of the inconsistent items than did those tested with the standard task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
from Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
Phonological typicality does not influence fixation durations in normal reading.
Using a word-by-word self-paced reading paradigm, T. A. Farmer, M. H. Christiansen, and P. Monaghan (2006) reported faster reading times for words that are phonologically typical for their syntactic category (i.e., noun or verb) than for words that are phonologically atypical. This result has been taken to suggest that language users are sensitive to subtle relationships between sound and syntactic function and that they make rapid use of this information in comprehension. The present article reports attempts to replicate this result using both eyetracking during normal reading (Experiment 1) and word-by-word self-paced reading (Experiment 2). No hint of a phonological typicality effect emerged on any reading-time measure in Experiment 1, nor did Experiment 2 replicate Farmer et al.’s finding from self-paced reading. Indeed, the differences between condition means were not consistently in the predicted direction, as phonologically atypical verbs were read more quickly than phonologically typical verbs, on most measures. Implications for research on visual word recognition are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
from Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
Should I stay or should I switch? A cost–benefit analysis of voluntary language switching in young and aging bilinguals.
Bilinguals spontaneously switch languages in conversation even though laboratory studies reveal robust cued language switching costs. The authors investigated how voluntary-switching costs might differ when switches are voluntary. Younger (Experiments 1–2) and older (Experiment 3) Spanish–English bilinguals named pictures in 3 conditions: (a) dominant-language only, (b) nondominant-language only, and (c) using “whatever language comes to mind” (in Experiment 2, “using each language about half the time”). Most bilinguals, particularly balanced bilinguals, voluntarily mixed languages even though switching was costly. Unlike with cued switching, voluntary switching sometimes facilitated responses, switch costs were not greater for the dominant language, and age effects on language mixing and switching were limited. This suggests that the freedom to mix languages voluntarily allows unbalanced and older bilinguals to function more like balanced and younger bilinguals. Voluntary switch costs reveal an expanded role for inhibitory control in bilingual language production and imply a mandatory separation by language in bilingual lexical selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
from Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
Greater leftward lateralization of the inferior frontal gyrus in second language learners with higher syntactic abilities
There is a great individual variability for acquiring syntactic knowledge in a second language (L2). Little is, however, known if there is any anatomical basis in the brain for individual differences in syntactic acquisition. Here we examined brain structures in 95 nonnative speakers of English, including 78 high-school students and 17 adult international students. We found a significant correlation between the performance of a syntactic task and leftward lateralization of a single region in the triangular part (F3t) of the inferior frontal gyrus, which has been proposed as the grammar center. Moreover, this correlation was independent of the performance of a spelling task, age, gender, and handedness. This striking result suggests that the neural basis for syntactic abilities in L2 is independent of that for lexical knowledge in L2, further indicating that the individual differences in syntactic acquisition are related to the lateralization of the grammar center. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
from Human Brain Mapping
The Effects of Aging and Dual Task Demands on Language Production
A digital pursuit rotor task was used to measure dual task costs of language production by young and older adults. After training on the pursuit rotor, participants were asked to track the moving target while providing a language sample. When simultaneously engaged, young adults experienced greater dual task costs to tracking, fluency, and grammatical complexity than older adults. Older adults were able to preserve their tracking performance by speaking more slowly. Individual differences in working memory, processing speed, and Stroop interference affected vulnerability to dual task costs. These results demonstrate the utility of using a digital pursuit rotor to study the effects of aging and dual task demands on language production and confirm prior findings that young and older adults use different strategies to accommodate to dual task demands.
Wimps Hear Dangerous Noises Differently
Scrawnier people are more likely to perceive an approaching sound as closer than it actually is. This connection between physical fitness and the brain’s auditory system may have evolved to help the weak get out of the way of approaching danger.
Outcomes of Child Sleep Problems Over the School-Transition Period: Australian Population Longitudinal Study
CONCLUSIONS. Sleep problems during school transition are common and associated with poorer child outcomes. Randomized, controlled trials could determine if population-based sleep interventions can reduce the prevalence and impact of sleep problems.
from Pediatrics
