CALL Research Journal #12

As a busy part-time graduate student, being able to read academic articles efficiently is an indispensable survival skill. Last Thursday, Professor Johanson required us to read through a dozen-page thesis in 15 minutes. Impossible it might seem; yet this difficulty can be conquered once you know the tricks. Professor Johanson asked some of the classmates to share their ways of reading the thesis. Every one has his/her own reading style and the experienced-sharing was valuable as well as beneficial. First, we should take note of the background information such as the topic, institution, the authenticated date etc. Then we move to the abstract. Abstract gives us an overview and the basic information of the thesis. It shall contain the purpose, research method, participants and findings of the study. Next we skip to the conclusion part. Conclusion is where to tell if the thesis is juicy, in other words, worth reading or not. Finally we go back to the body, especially the part that explains how the research was conducted. I personally think that figures are critical in providing a general idea about how the findings are analyzed. Furthermore, references section is also one thing that shouldn’t be overlooked. We can learn a lot of key words or phrases related to the topic from here.

CALL Research Journal #11

This week I’ve read an interesting thesis from Hong Kong University. The author aimed at investigating the differences between Japanese and English anphoras and metaphors. He argued that anaphoras are the syntactic devices that render the logic and coherence of the text; while metaphors are the semantic devices that portray two things with similar image or concept. Therefore, knowing the conventional usage of anaphoras and metaphors in source and target language could help translators produce natural and sophisticated translation. He shown numerous excerpts from journals, newspaper and fictional works to illustrate how to mend the grammatical and cultural gap between English and Japanese anaphoras and metaphors, which I think is very valuable to translators. Japanese and Chinese have a lot in common. For instance, both languages don’t use genitive pronouns (his/her/their) a lot. Hence I believe it might be helpful to take a further look at this thesis, and indeed it’s no disappointment. The thesis is well-organized with strong and creative argument. I’ve collected a list of theories about anaphoras and metaphors in the literature review chapter. Also I’ve learned the structural and organized way to make comparisons between two languages. Most important of all, the thesis shown me several useful strategies of analyzing translated text and how to deduce a reasonable conclusion from the analysis. A masterpiece!

CALL Research Journal #10

Last week, Professor Johanson revealed several valuable tricks of timed writing. I really appreciate that. When we have to write an article in a very short time, always remember to come up with a thesis statement first. A good thesis statement could help us develop our body paragraphs smoothly. If there is sufficient time to write three body paragraphs, you could include three main points in the thesis statement. If not, supply only two key points would do just fine. Then we jump to the conclusion part by copying the thesis statement and put it in the last paragraph. We could tweak the sentence pattern a little bit and add a few more sentences to form a complete ending. After having a sensible conclusion, we can go back to conceive the introduction. An opening like “everybody knows…,” a generalized position, could attract readers’ attention. Next we should present our own opinions about the topic to make the argument clear. Going from a general idea to an individualized perspective gradually paves our way to the thesis statement we have just created. Following the introduction are the body paragraphs. Ideally we should have at least two paragraphs. You should elaborate each point in your thesis statement in one paragraph. Writing a topic sentence in the beginning of each paragraph and then supplementing supporting statement. Adding a few personal examples is a good way to strengthen your arguments. Besides, transition words are essential elements in an article. They are what make the context coherent and logical. I’ve found following two web sites talking about transition words. Appropriate use of transition words could project the main ideas of the text.
http://www.studygs.net/wrtstr6.htm
http://www.cms.edu.do/Teachers%20Folders/willian%20farren/Pages/express/TWlistGL.htm

Vocabulary learning #2

adept – expert at
They would not be so rich if they were not adept at minimizing tax and maximizing profits.

adroit – skillful
Since then he has shown every sign of being a pragmatist, an adroit politician and a very hard worker.

aghast - horrified
When my boys first started school, we were aghast atthe anti-English propaganda in the history books.

albeit - although
He has a vision, albeit one unclouded by economic and social reality.

alimentary – supplying nourishment
Happily, apart from patients with high-grade obstruction within the alimentary tract, or with coeliac disease, dietary fibre in its natural state in food has not been shown to cause or exacerbate any human disease in the Western population.

amenable - easy to control; willing to be influenced by sb/sth
Corporate culture is not something easily amenable to management control or manipulation.

Vocabulary learning #1

Thanks for the GRE words list provided by Professor Johanson. To make the best use of it, I decided to pick some words from the list every now and then and extract a sample sentence from British National Corpus for each of them. BNC stores abundant collections of sentences gathered from authentic sources, such as academic journals, periodicals, newspaper, published works and so on. As a graduate school student about to write a academic paper, I believe it is vital to escalate my vocabulary level and to know how a word is used by native speakers with sophisticated language ability.

abstemious - temperate, sparing in drink, etc.
There is a record of a severe lecture he delivered to Capuchin monks in Prague whom he found were living far more expansively than his own abstemious style would permit.

abstruse - obscure, profound
Although some of these analyses have proved abstruse and others untenable, this collective contribution (which can be only briefly explored here) has proved vital in re-orientating thinking on the urban problem and its resolution.

acidulous - slightly sour, sharp, caustic
In these circumstances I think that Darwin can rest quietly in his grave, that is to say of the acidulous palaeontologists haven't already been trying to dig him up to prove something.

acrimonious - stinging, caustic
But in the mid-1970s there was an acrimonious conflict between the different intelligence gathering agencies in the province.

adamant - hard, inflexible
The Government is equally adamant that councils' financial problems are being exaggerated and that the civil disobedience campaign is flopping.

CALL Research Journal #9 - Magnificent Interconnected underground temples in Italy

This piece of news caught my eyes when I skimmed through a pile of old newspaper yesterday. Falco, a successful insurance broker, claims that he could see visions of a past life when he was a child. Since then, he made up his mind that he will recreate the visions one day. Falco's ambition doesn't wane with the time. He carefully picked a hillside in northen Italy where the rock is hard enough to support the underground construction he had in mind. With few friends sharing his vision, they started the project in sceret in 1978 and name it the "Temples of Damanhur". However, the Italian goverment found out what they were working on and threatened to blew it up if they don't reveal their secret. Falco and his friend had no choice but to bring the police officers down to the chambers buried 100ft underground. The police officers were astonished by the scale and rich ornate of the temples. They hardly believed that all these stunning constructions were built by only several people with hammers and picks!! The goverment finally decided to dub it "the Eighth Wonder of the World". I hope one day I can see the marvel with my own eyes. @o@

CALL Research Journal Entry #8

Time flies. I hardly believe that it has been nearly three months since the beginning of this semester. Well, it might be a good time to examine what I’ve learned about CALL during this period. There are many dimensions that designers should take into consideration while designing CALL materials, such as learners’ individual differences, the goal of the course, the arrangement of syllabus, the applicable teaching methodologies and principles, available facilities and whether the design scheme at local level accords with wider environment. Using computer to assist teaching seems to be an unavoidable trend. This emerging field requires experts to cultivate and to make better integration between computer technology and pedagogy reality. Meanwhile, the drawbacks of computer technology shall be clearly identified before a efficient language learning course and environment can be created.
Besides, many web sites and e-tools presented by the classmates are practical and interesting. I am particularly impressed with Tony’s “Puzzle Maker” and Sharon’s “Yahoo! Pipes” presentation. Puzzle Maker can be used to generate quite a few fascinating vocabulary-spelling puzzles that undoubtedly enhance students’ interest and motivation in learning. Yahoo! Pipes, on the other hand, is a marvelous and revolutionary new tool with the power of customizing one’s own homepage. Users can design the pipe map and draw preferred feeds to render a tailored webpage that contains only the information of interest. Wow, it really made me eyes wide open!!

CALL Research Journal Entry #7

My Experience of Using Blackboard System
I have to admit that I don’t log in Blackboard very often due to the following reasons. First, few teachers are using it as an assistant course tool. The phenomenon makes Blackboard detached to its expected purpose, to manage various kinds of materials related to the subjects we take. Furthermore, the design of its user interface is confusing. For example, the icons “Communication” and “Tools” are duplicated in the left-hand side column. Besides, there is a “Calendar” function in Blackboard system. In my point of view, “Calendar” should function as a “Reminder”. After all, it is why we count on a Calendar application, to remind us beforehand in case we inadvertently forget the pre-scheduled event. So it seems ridiculous to me that the “Calendar” in Blackboard System has no such function. The edit function of Blackboard is even a greater disappointment. The format can’t get right each time I tried to copy the content from Word into our Blackboard. The item symbols are either missing or misplaced. In the end, you have to waste a lot of time modifying the layout of the copied content. Deficient though Blackboard may be, its value and intention of trying to integrate institutional-wide learning resources shouldn’t be disdained. To ensure the life-span of Blackboard, I think it is very important that the school could arrange periodic evaluation as soon as possible. No design is born to be perfect, it is crucial to have a good and sound evaluation system to detect the potential and existing problems so that the designers could tweak the design bit by bit. Here I’d like to point out several things that might be useful in improving our Blackboard System. The “Calendar” feature should allow users to set the reminding function. For instance, I could ask the system to remind me 3 days before a pre-scheduled event by sending me a notice to my email box. When teachers post important announcements or require students to join a discussion, the system could check in every few days and automatically send a reminding message to those students who haven’t logged in to respond. In addition, I think it is a good idea that Blackboard could integrate with our library system. All the books I borrowed are listed in my blackboard account with deadline beside. Whenever there are new coming books related to the ones I ever borrowed, Blackboard system could show such information which, I believe, would be quite beneficial to graduate students in conducting their researches. Blackboard should strive to accommodate and manage various aspects of the school learning environment to truly become a dominant LMS on campus.

E-tool (200 best Web sites) - Only 2 Clicks

200 best Web sites-only 2 clicks http://www.only2clicks.com/index.php
Do you have trouble finding where in hell you put your favorite web sites??
Use this fascinating tool, and you will see how easy it can be!

1. Create an account



2. Add a link





3. Edit Category






4. That's it!!

CALL Research Journal Entry #6

From page 22-26 of Chapter2, the authors explain how the CALL tutors are different from the CALL tools. A CALL tutor would analyze, evaluate the learner’s response and give feedback based on its analysis result. ILTS (Intelligent language tutoring systems) can be seen as a breakthrough of this technology. This kind of system is capable of analyzing the grammar errors made by the learners and generating individualized feedback. Tutor Assistant is an authoring system that could aid the designers in creating ILTS materials. However, unlike other simple authoring tools (Hot Potatoes), which can be used to produce exercises very quickly, designing CALL materials with ILTS is a time consuming task. According to the study done by Toole and Heift, it shows that time-efficient authoring of ILTS can be achieved if the design is well planed ahead. On the other hand, a CALL tool is a device that facilitates the use of computer technology. The authors particularly bring up an electronic tandem resources (ETR) Web site, a CMC-based CALL, designed by Appel and Mullen. Through this tool, the authors present the importance of how the language-learning effects of a CALL tool can be enhanced by properly modifying it both pedagogically and technically.
From page 27-35, the authors reveal the improvements of the design of CALL materials over the last few years. Designers become more aware of the multifaceted nature of CALL and therefore accommodate different theories, pedagogies, and best practices in their design. Two important integrations – Horizontal and Vertical integration, are then discussed in three different perspectives. First in the perspective of the Language Teacher, the integration of CALL and curriculum is the first concern. The authors suggest that the language teachers see a curriculum as a guide or template rather than a prescription. In this way, the curriculum could provide the teachers with flexible room to adjust the activities introduced in the classroom while not deviating from the main learning goal. As for the Language Learner’s perspective, teachers, also as designers, shall keep an eye on the learners’ individual differences so that the appropriate technologies and supplementary training can be leveraged. Employing CALL materials with concerns for the learner’s individual differences in the technical background and expectations of using technologies can be referred to as horizontal integration. Yet, to view from the Institution’s perspective, the integration expands in a vertical direction. It means that designers should examine the compatibility between the technology used in the local side and the wider environment. The congruence between both contexts could greatly lengthen the life span of the CALL materials. At last, the authors call our attention to the trend toward a narrow consistency in hardware and software applications. It brings about the problem that the resources available for CALL designers are more and more limited. What’s more important for designers is to fully understand the drawbacks of the application or system in use and then to design effectively within the limitations.

CALL Research Journal Entry #5

In Chapter 2 from page 19-22, the authors analyze the design of CALL materials from three aspects – language-learning task, course and syllabus and language learning areas and skills. These different points of departure would drive the design toward different directions. If the design is task-based, teachers, as designers of language teaching tasks, should bear in mind when designing a task, that design is no longer a static concept, but a dynamic process to be continually refined with a greater involvement of the learners. For the course and syllabus-based design, the authors gave an example of combining two components of the course, webCT and CD, to compensate the defect of each tool. With this hybrid solution, the learners can enjoy the rich media content without compromising the interactive environment. As the focus shifts to language-learning areas and skills, the designers would set out by employing the theories and methodologies specific to a language skill or area. It is, however, controversial that whether treating language learning in this discrete manner could really contribute to SLA.
I am gradually convinced by the authors’ perspective about CALL, that technology would hardly be advantageous to the language teaching and learning unless its limitations can be fully recognized. Though process of reading is excruciating ><, I consider it as a good way for me to learn the approach to build a sound ground while writing an academic article.

CALL Research Journal Entry #3

“Randall’s EFL Cyber Listening Web”
When I surfed on the internet looking for some EFL-related websites few days ago, I came across a fascinating website called “Randall’s EFL Cyber Listening Web”, which is specifically designed to enhance English listening comprehension. Before long I found that this website is also listed in our e-learning board! Moreover, Professor Johanson happened to use it as sample to demonstrate the e-tool presentation in class. The clean and organized layout of this website is one thing that drew my attention in the first place. I think Mr. Randall put a lot of efforts in setting up this EFL website. Though it doesn’t have much colorful or dynamic design, it is very practical in many ways. For example, it has numerous tips for EFL teachers and students, which shows that Mr. Randall truely thinks in their shoes so that he could collect and create these useful materials. Besides, it amazed me that the download speed of the audio files from the website is relatively fast. When I listened to the downloaded file, there was no sign of lag or interruption. After I completed the quiz, I could simply click the “Final Score” button to see the correct answers and evaluate my performance. There are also the full texts of the audio files available on the website to clarify the content that I missed. To me, this website is just like a free English tutor at home!

CALL Research Journal Entry #2

Today, we learned a general idea of the history of CALL. The biggest issue presented in CALL now is the gap between pedagogy and technology. Program designers, who are dexterous in designing programs, usually know very little or nothing about education. On the other hand, few educators would devote to studying the computer technology. I think it is very important to break the psychological barrier of the educators. Their unwillingness or resistance to embrace the technology blocks the path that leads to a more sophisticated CALL model. After all, how greatly the computer technology could contribute to the language teaching relies upon the successful and innovative integration of them. No doubt educators play a crucial role to serve as an interface in this task. Computer technology is a very powerful tool. Anything powerful is mostly a double-sided blade. If well applied, computer technology could be a good partner in language teaching. However, if we ignore the influence of the computer technology and cause the gap to grow deeper, it could be like a runaway horse that damages both teachers and students in language teaching and learning.

CALL Research Journal Entry #1

In the time of booming information, we can access all kinds of knowledge from internet. The World Wide Web is like a giant database that store rich information waited to be explored anytime. Everything around us is computerized or digitalized to catch up with the lightning speed of the IT revolution, and language teaching is no exception for sure. It is amazing how the style of language teaching has evolved over these 20 years. That’s the reason why I chose to take this course. Though I am not a teacher, I am curious about how the computer technology can improve language learning. I also wonder if there is a line between properly and over using computers as assistance in teaching. How does a teacher determine the proportion of computer technology to be applied in his/her class? Is there any standard method to evaluate the effectiveness of adopting computer technology in teaching language learners? By taking this course, I expect to broaden my vision to this emerging field. Besides, I anticipate that Professor Johanson could introduce various interesting websites about English learning, which I believe would help us find the useful, authentic information we need. I am chomping at the bit to get started!