User:DylanPE/Computer Assisted Language Learning

Notes on current article

 * lacks recent references (past decade)
 * outdated/unnecessary technological details (could be relegated to a 'History' section?)
 * many references are given without explaining anything in them (could be separated into 'Further Reading', an annotated bibliography?)

Planned changes

 * add information about modern (e.g. web/mobile app) technologies, affordances/constraints
 * updates to "Internet" section
 * add some context/information on (more recent) intersection with SLA, learning outcomes
 * maybe something about implicit versus explicit learning and outcomes?
 * updates to "Pedagogy" section
 * maybe something about corpora/concordancers? (e.g. Linguee) Defining Corpora in more laymen's terms.
 * maybe something about problems related to CALL
 * Link to Mobile assisted language learning
 * Maybe more information about NLP in Human Language Technologies. Clean this section up.
 * Lots of weird phrasing and direct quotes in this section.

Drafting
Sections to add/edit:


 * Dylan - Effects of CALL/ Human Language Technologies
 * Meredith - Mobile-assisted Language Learning. Link to other article
 * Alex - Web 2.0 Technologies, CMC

Revision/addition: Web-based CALL
[section revised from here] The emergence of the World Wide Web and graphical web browsers in the early 1990s marked a significant change in the use of communications technology. The launch of the Web in the public arena offered possible applications in a number of areas, including for language teachers. Many language teachers were already familiar with the concept of hypertext on stand-alone computers (e.g. using Apple's HyperCard software), which made it possible to set up non-sequential structured reading activities for language learners in which they could point to text or images on a page on the computer screen and branch to any other pages. The Web provided a similar framework on a larger scale, as a worldwide hypertext system in which the user could use links to navigate between different webpages from anywhere in the world.

This opened up access to thousands of authentic foreign-language websites that teachers and students could use in a variety of ways. A problem that arose, however, was that this could lead to a good deal of time-wasting if Web browsing was used in an unstructured way (Davies 1997: pp. 42–43). Language teachers responded by developing more structured activities and online exercises (Leloup & Ponterio 2003), for example using free authoring tools like Hot Potatoes (first demonstrated publicly at the EUROCALL 1998 conference) to create their own online interactive exercises. Davies (2010) lists over 500 websites, where links to online exercises can be found, along with links to online dictionaries and encyclopaedias, concordancers, translation aids and other miscellaneous resources of interest to the language teacher and learner.

Starting in the early 2000s, there was a shift toward the development of so-called Web 2.0 applications, in which emphasis shifted from web browsing, as an essentially one-way process from the webpage to the end-user, to the use of interactive web applications permitting greater social interaction and sharing. Walker, Davies & Hewer (2011: Section 2.1) list multiple examples of relevant applications, including image storage and sharing, social bookmarking, discussion lists, blogs, wikis, social networking, chat rooms, MUDs, virtual worlds, podcasting, audio and video sharing, animation tools, and mashups. While many of these technologies have received attention in CALL since the early 2000s (see for example Dudeney (2007) and Thomas (2008) ), [additions begin here] later research has revealed potential advantages and challenges in their application to language learning. For example, a review of several studies in web-based CALL from 2009 to 2013 described how a few major technologies differ in their potential applications:


 * Blogging may be an effective way of developing reading and writing skills, as well as for encouraging interactions and feedback from both peers and instructors. Voice blogs in particular may provide an opportunity to practice prepared spoken material. However, the use of blogs in an academic setting requires specific student and instructor mentalities, and may restrict the kinds of interaction that take place.
 * Working on wikis may likewise provide opportunities to develop writing skills, as well as peer collaboration. The effectiveness and interest of this tool for different students depends on their patterns of participation and desire to engage in online groups.
 * Social networking sites can be used to enhance exposure and awareness of cultural aspects of language usage, assuming learners are made familiar with how to use these platforms.

For the domain of language learning, a key aspect of these technologies is the capacity to share information and communicate virtually with native speakers and other learners. This can create opportunities for learners to produce and access various written and spoken forms of their target language. However, different kinds of web-based communication have different applications to language learning, varying with factors like modality, degree of engagement, and native speaker interaction.

For example, many forms of text-based communication give the learner time to review the content of the text and consult reference materials, encouraging a greater focus on the syntactic form of the language, whereas synchronous applications involving video and audio interaction tend to emphasize real time response and lexical proficiency. At the same time, different kinds of media can be combined in multimodal applications, potentially facilitating language learning by having learners use textual, oral, and graphic processing strategies together. Different types of online communication also vary in the degree of interaction between the learner and other speakers. Long term, one-on-one language exchanges have been shown to help learners with both language acquisition and intercultural competence, while communication with a wider audience via a blog or wiki can have a positive effect on learner motivation related to having an "authentic" audience. Likewise, the extensive interactions involved in online games and social networks have been linked to increased motivation and desire to communicate, and a greater extent of meaningful linguistic interaction.

The differences in how various web-based technologies can be applied to language learning have implications for their use in designing instructional tasks. As of their review of previous research in 2016, Parmaxi and Zaphiris had concluded that further studies were needed to understand how task design can take different technological affordances into consideration, though they note that the effectiveness of such tasks depends in general on the technological literacy and engagement of both learners and instructors. Likewise, Reinders and Stockwell argue that the potential advantages associated with these technologies may not be realized without concurrent changes in the language learning and teaching "ecology" where they are introduced, including expectations about instructors' roles in formal education.

Addition: Corpora and concordancers
Reinders and Stockwell likewise note that computer corpora can be applied to second language instruction not only by identifying high frequency and idiomatic expressions in native input (see Granger, Gilquin, & Meunier (2015) ), but also by revealing patterns in learner differences and language development (see Myles (2007) ). Additionally they note that creating and using corpora can allow learners themselves to analyse common grammatical patterns in their second language, raising their linguistic awareness.

Addition: Effects of CALL
...more than once if possible. [Addition starts here]

Computer assisted Language Learning might be better at teaching certain tasks than others depending on teaching practices. Most CALL systems work off simple pattern matching, comparing responses to pre-stored answers. In many cases, this can be effective, however there are limits as to what aspects of Language Education can be implemented with this approach (Tafazoli 2018). Conversely ICALL systems have not been so thoroughly used in language teaching and there is considered to be a great deal of unutilized potential.

[Addition ends here]

Types of technology training in CALL for language teaching professionals certainly vary....

Addition: Intelligent Language Tutoring Systems:
…

Speech recognition is less advanced than speech synthesis. It has been used in a number of CALL programs, in which it is usually described as automatic speech recognition (ASR). ASR is not easy to implement.

[Direct Quote removed]

Programs embodying ASR normally provide a native speaker model that the learner is requested to imitate, but the matching process is not 100% reliable and may result in a learner's perfectly intelligible attempt to pronounce a word or phrase being rejected (Davies 2010: Section 3.4.6 and Section 3.4.7)

Parsing is used in a number of ways in CALL. Gupta & Schulze (2010: Section 5) describe how parsing may be used to analyse sentences, presenting the learner with a tree diagram that labels the constituent parts of speech of a sentence and shows the learner how the sentence is structured. Parsing is also used in CALL programs to analyse the learner's input and diagnose errors.

[Additions start Here]

Where as CALL is limited to checking responses against predefined answers, Intelligent language tutoring systems(ILTS) can use ICALL applications to gauge the capabilities of students. ICALL is different from normal CALL in that it has potential to understand complex input from language learners and provide customized feedback through artificial intelligence and machine learning (Amaral 2011)

That being said, incorporation of ICALL into language education has seen mixed results. Often ICALL is implemented too narrowly, having advanced language processing abilities focused on a small aspect of the language, or too widely given unrestricted data for testing.(Tafazoli 2018) Many have failed to utilize language acquisition theories. However, there have been some general successes. An ICALL application developed by the University of Alberta for teaching introductory courses in Plains Cree was generally well received by students (Bontogon 2018)  and many issues related to the effectiveness of ICALL often stem from interface related issues rather than curriculum or internal design problems. Examples of successful ICALL applications include E-tutor, a system developed for L2 Speakers of German, and TAGARELA developed as a ICALL workbook for learners of Portuguese that offers feedback on spelling, morphology, syntax, and semantics. There is a common opinion that there has not been enough collaboration between language learners, teachers and curriculum designers, and linguists responsible for the development of ICALL systems.

[Additions end here]

Research into speech synthesis...

Addition: Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL)
Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) is a subcategory of CALL bridging the gap between formal and informal language learning. It facilitates language acquisition using mobile technology such as smartphones, tablets, e-readers, e-dictionaries, and gaming consoles. Mobile technology enables learners to acquire the target language using applications and access to the Internet. These functions allow the user to independently or cooperatively acquire language skills (Kukulska-Hulme 2018). MALL has increased in use throughout the 21st century as it provides learners with time flexibility and entertaining learning methods.

There are limited empirical studies on the effectiveness of MALL. A study by Loewen, S. et al. (2019) on the effectiveness of Duolingo for learners of Turkish included these findings:


 * Participants who used the application obtained a greater knowledge of the target language by the end of the study.


 * Of all participants who used the application for thirty-four hours and took a university first-semester level exam for their target language at the end of the study, only one participant earned a passing score.


 * The correlation between exam performance and study time was about average. This suggests that individuals learn more as they spend more time using the application.

Another study by Gonulal, T. (2019) examined the use of Instagram as a means to learn English. The findings were as follows:


 * Most English learners reported that they use Instagram with the intention of learning English. Methods for language learning included following English teaching profiles and communicating with others through comments and direct messages.


 * Social media provides users with an immense amount of input, which primarily strengthens vocabulary and communicative skills in the target language.

Possible resources
Reinders, H. & Stockwell, G. (2017). Computer-assisted second language acquisition.  (A more up to date overview, written for a handbook for L2 pedagogy.)

Parmaxi, A. & Zaphiris, P. (2016). Web 2.0 in Computer-Assisted Language Learning.  (Recent-ish summary of some of the newer web technologies. Maybe not recent enough.)

Bibauwa, S., François, T., & Desmet, P. (2019). Research synthesis and conceptual framework of dialogue-based CALL.  (Review of research on the subfield of 'dialogue-based CALL'...)

Mobile-assisted language learning (cf. MALL)
Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2018). Mobile-assisted language learning. 

Loewen, S. & al. (2019). Mobile-assisted language learning: A Duolingo case study. 

Gonulal, T. (2019). The Use of Instagram as a Mobile-Assisted Language Learning Tool. 

Call Pedagogical practices
Heift, T. and Rimrott, A. (2012), Task‐Related Variation in Computer‐Assisted Language Learning.

Modern Language Journal, 96: 525-543. https://doi-org.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2012.01392.x (Not so sure about this citation.)

General links
A useful database for articles: https://eric.ed.gov/

A general handbook: The Handbook of Technology and Second Language Teaching and Learning

EUROCALL short papers: https://eric.ed.gov/?q=eurocall+short+papers