A talk on autonomous learning on December 3rd

A talk on self-access language learning at 11am on December 3.



UNIVERSITY LANGUAGE SUPPORT FLEXIBLE DELIVERY FOR AUTONOMOUS LEARNING



In this talk Dr. Reinders will consider the importance of language support as a complement and sometimes alternative to language teaching. As an example, he will demonstrate the system for language support set up at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. This combines diagnostic procedures with workshops, language counseling services, and crucially, an electronic monitoring system that supports students in their language studies and that encourages autonomous language learning. The system was designed to offer support that is tightly linked with the students' needs and that tracks their progress over time. The system also proactively offers students help, recommendations and referrals to support staff, based on their profile and their out-of-class language learning. Dr. Reinders will conclude with a number of practical suggestions for tertiary teachers for implementing language support in their own institutions.

Prof. Tseng's speech on December 13

Speech Outline

Theresa Jiin-ling Tseng
ttseng@thu.edu.tw
December 13, 2007

The Role of Error in Second Language Acquisition: A Historical Perspective (1890s-2000s)

I. Defining Error? Depends on different perspectives:
A. Pedagogical:
1. “an utterance, form, or structure that a particular L teacher deems unacceptable because of its inappropriate use or its absence in real-life discourse” (Hendrickson, 1978, p. 387).
2. “unsuccessful use or usage of a target language” (Tseng, 2006, p. 8).
B. Sociolinguistic Perspective:
1. Variation, change
2. A dialect that is counterpart of a particular standard language
C. Language Acquisition/Learning:
1. “Flawed side of learner speech or writing” (Dulay, Burt, & Krashen, 1982)
2. Part and parcel of learner language development

II. The Role of Error in Second Language Acquisition
A. 1890s-1920s (the emergence of modern linguistics, associationism)
B. 1930s-1960s (structuralism and behaviorism)
C. Late 1960s-1970s (Chomsky’s influence: generative grammar/psycholinguistics, innatism)
D. 1970s-1980s (coexistence of cognitive & socio-cultural aspects)
E. 1980s-2000s (cognitive approaches to SLA: perceptual saliency)
F. Some recent topics: ultimate attainment, optionality, fossilization v. stablization

Calling for a review meeting

Dear all,

Thank you for participating in the SCT seminar. Many of you said it was a fulfilling experience, and I could not agree more. I will put together a report at the weekend for those who cannot be there. There will be photos and video recordings too when I can get the materials from differnt people.

I was wondering if we can get together for a review meeting some time soon.
Agenda
1. Our learning: What do we think about the SCT seminar and what did we learn?
2. Logistically, what did we do well for the seminar? What can be improved?
3. What are some ways to continue our learning and collaboration as a learning community?

Would you let Susan know (using the center's email account ccstudy@ncuu.edu.tw) which date is better for you: November 30 (Friday)? December 3rd (Monday)? or others?

For people who cannot physically be at the review meeting, I am sure we can set up a video conferencing session with the help of Prof. Chang at the National Chia-Tung University. Please indicate you can attend through the video (you need a computer, the internet, a headset, and a webcam.)

Talk to you soon.

- Chin-chi

Lude: intercultural and cross-cultural communication

Hi, dear all:

It seems that we are all interested in but confused with the difference between “intercultural communication” and “cross-cultural communication”. I checked the book Culture learning: the fifth dimension in the language classroom written by Louise Damen in1987, one of the books included in the reading list of the intimidating comprehensive exam in this PhD program, and found the following definitions for your reference.

Intercultural communication: acts of communication undertaken by individuals identified with groups exhibiting intergroup variation in shared social and cultural patterns. (These shared patterns, individually expressed, are the major variables in the purpose, the manner, the mode, and the means by which the communicative process is affected.)

Cross-cultural awareness: understanding of similarities and differences in cultural patterns of other than native culture.

I also checked the Longman dictionary of language teaching & applied linguistics (3rd edition 2002) and found the definitions of these two terms as follows:

Intercultural communication, also interdiscourse communication//intercultural discourse: an interdisciplinary field of research that studies how people communicate and understand each other across group boundaries or discourse systems of various sorts including national, geographical, linguistic, ethnic, occupation, class or gender-related boundaries and how such boundaries affect language use. This could include the study of a corporate culture, a professional group, a gender discourse system, or a generational discourse system.

Cross-cultural communication: And exchange of ideas, information, etc., between persons from different cultural backgrounds. There are often more problems in cross-cultural communication than in communication between people of the same cultural background. Each participant may interpret the other’s speech according to his or her own cultural conventions and expectations. If the cultural conventions of the speakers are widely different, misinterpretations and misunderstandings can easily arise, even resulting in a total breakdown of communication. This has been shown by research into real-life situations, such as job interviews, doctor-patient encounters and legal communication.

It seems that my previous interpretation of these two terms at the study group was kind of misleading, though not totally wrong. The difference between “intercultural” and “cross-cultural” seems to lie in their different foci rather than locations (within or not within a common geographical nation). “Intercultural communication” focuses on the skills, conduction, and problems of communication by people from different cultural backgrounds. For example, Damen mentions in his book:“intercultural communication can entail ‘error’ in social perception brought about by cultural variations that affect the perceptual process”. Besides, the different cultural backgrounds can refer to not only ethnic but national, geographical, linguistic, or occupation backgrounds, as the Longman dictionary says.

On the other hand, “cross-cultural” seems to address the awareness of the similarities and differences between other cultures and one’s native cultures. In fact, the term ”cross-cultural communication’ is kind of obsolete. It used to be one of the equivalences of “intercultural communication”. Now “cross-cultural” is often juxtaposed with the terms “awareness”, “research”, or “training”, emphasizing the comparison between two or more different cultural groups. Here are some examples from Damen’s book for you:

“The first cross-cultural training manual only appeared in 1970 in the United States for Peace Corps volunteers.

Cross-cultural research should not be carried out with methods and instruments developed in monocultural contexts.

That is my short research about the definitions of the two terms. Hope they’re helpful to you. Meanwhile, I’d like to thank all of you for inspiring me at the study group. I really enjoyed it and I’ve learned a lot from you. Special thank goes to Ruth. It is very sweet of you to make the certificates for us. You have really warmed my heart. Thank you very much.

Lude (Christine)

The 4th Study Group Meeting (第四次SCT讀書會紀錄)

Eight participants were in the fourth study group meeting, including two over the video conferencing website established by Prof. Chang from Chia-Tung U. for us. We did experience some technological glitches. If we can solve the problem soon, people who are not in Taipei can also have the chance to join us in our future activities. For this, we are excited and feel grateful to Prof. Chang's generous help and effort.

The 4th study group meeting started by listing everybody's issues for discussion, and we really had a lot to put on the board: 11 different topics. For easier processing, I try to put them into categories this way (if not appropriate please let me know):

Group A. Writing Issues
1. Is it all right to write like this?

Group B: Conceptual Muses (interesting ideas)
2. "Cultural rich point": teacher training, discourse analysis
3. Technology as social artifact and its limitations
6. The "contradiction" focus of activity theory
8. Forming new identities through intenet communication

Group C: Practical Concerns
5. How to coordinate with partner schools?
11. Conflicts in practice between the goal of developing communcative competence (general expectations) and the emphasis of intercultural competence (the latter was empasized by Thorne in the article)
10. Cultural stereotypes: there are many different cultures within the same country. Wouldn't it cause stereotypical thinking if we think of people only in terms of the country they are from?

Group D: Term confusion
What is the difference between --
7. telecollaboration projects and tandem projects?
4. ICFLE and other CMC projects?
9. interculture and cross-cultural communication?

We talked about all of these at the meeting, and the discussion helped clarify many concepts.

Next week will be our last SCT study group meeting. We are going to brainstorm on questions to be raised when Thorne visits. Exciting!

For those who have not signed up for the seminar, please do so quickly. We need to prepare refreshment and handouts. Thank you.

Dr. Carla Meskill's talk

-----Forwarded message-----
> Dear All,
>
> In case you do not konw, Dr. Carla Meskill will be speaking at the
> National Kaohsiung First University of Science & Technology at 12/7
> (Friday). See http://www.eng.nkfust.edu.tw/96conferences/12_7/keynote.htm.>
> Dr. Meskill is an expert in CMC research and CALL teacher education- a
> very good speaker, scholar, and definitely a very nice person. :-)
>
> Best,
>
> Diana
>
>
> =================
> Yu-Feng (Diana) Yang, Ph. D.
> Assistant Professor
> Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
> National Sun Yat-Sen University
> Kaohsiung, Taiwan

The Third Study Group (第三次讀書會紀錄 Nov. 9)

The third study group meeting had 8 participants, including those who showed up last week and a new comer: Prof. Cheng from Chia-tung U.

Instead of posting questions by me, we started the meeting by eliciting key issues members would like to talk about. The issues include:
1. the gap between teachers and students ("cross-generational" digital divide, culture of use for email and IM)
2. the net generation
3. how to research/plan about data collection
4. how feasible it is to use the technologies in our EFL environment
5. conversational agent
(Others? Can somebody help me remember?)

We think Thorne is a good writer. Although he uses many terms and formal words which are not familiar to us, his discussion is well organized and ideas interesting. The interact nature of SCT also makes us feel necessary to emphasize dialogues. A question raised at the meeting was what we want to dialogue with him about. We agreed to post our questions/issues/comments here. Let's use the "comments" function.

The 2nd SCT Study Group Meeting (第二次讀書會紀錄 Nov 2)

Dear all,

The second study group meeting yesterday was from 12-2pm. We had eight participants, including one new member. The article was more practical and not as difficult as the first one, so everybody seemed to have a lot to say. Two hours just flew by. It was really fun.

For your information, our discussion focused on the following issues:
1. project-based learning as a way to address Thorne and Black's idea of "strong social responsibility" in langauge learning activity design (We say it is a way to "make the world a better place," borrowing Ruth's term.)
2. from learner's taking on new identity and positioning in activities to the issue of engagement
3. "learning" vs. "language learning" embedded in computer games
4. "the culture of use" and examples

BTW, the lunch box was yummy, thanks to our two wonderful assistants, May and Susan!
Hope you will join us next time.

96年11月1日外語教學科技研究演講系列

Join us for a talk on e-learning given by a professor from the Defense Institue of Foreign Language, Monterey, CA, U.S. (The introduction was issued by the dean's office below.)

Time: 12:10-14:00 Thursday November 1 (TOMORROW!!)
Venue: Room 309 of the English department

If you sign up with Susan (through ccstudy@nccu.edu.tw), lunch will be prepared for you. :-)

美國國防語言學院謝貴蘭教授
談E-learning & Pedagogical Consideration （數位網路學習與教學法考量) (院辦)
時間：民國96年11月1日（星期四） 12：10~14：00
場所：季陶樓340309（外語學院口譯教室）
主辦單位：外語學院

演講者簡歷： 謝貴蘭，日本國立東京外國語大學日本語學和外語習得碩士，美國伊利諾大學香檳校區語言學碩、博士。美國國防語言學院副教授，目前擔任該學院教務諮詢委員，該課程研發中心教材研發部“環球語言網路支援系統”計畫主要研發員，該學院教務諮詢員和口語能力測試考官。曾擔任加利福尼亞州教師檢定認證華語組顧問委員和評分委員。
專長：語言學、外語習得、網路課程研發、外語教學法和口語能力測試。
研究方向：網路課程設計和教材研發、中英日對照比較、教學法和遠距離教學等。
Kuei-Lan Chen, Defense Language Institute. Kuei-Lan Chen has a Ph.D. and an M.A. in linguistics from University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and an M.A. in teaching foreign languages from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan. She is an Associate Professor and serves as an SME (Subject Matter Expert) of GLOSS (Global Online Language Support System) at Curriculum Development Department at the Defense Language Institute, Monterey, CA. Currently she is designing the Internet Interactive Chinese Lessons. Prior to that, she was a team leader in the Chinese Department at the same institute. Kuei-Lan has held teaching positions at Soochow University in Taiwan, and also taught Mandarin and Japanese in UC Santa Cruz for several years.

suggested discussion questions for Friday study group (November 2)

Dear all,

Questions below are for the study group meeting on November 2 and are based on

Thorne, S. L., & Black, R. (2008). Language and literacy development in computer-mediated contexts and communities. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 28.

1. After discussing Warschauer (1998), the authors say “socially and/or professionally relevant “strong purpose activities” tend to be more productive and engaging for participants.” Can you explain why? What would these activities look like in concrete terms?

2. What kind of positioning and new identity do you see different groups of students assume in the studies reported at INTER-CLASS AND INTER-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS? Why did the students decide to take different positions and identities? Why is assuming new identities important here?

3. When it comes to ICL2E, what are the potential gains? What are some key areas of conflicts and tensions? What suggestions do the authors provide as to how to deal with the conflicts in terms of (1) the teacher’s role and (2) keeping the “right” perspective? As a classroom teacher, do you agree?

4. In the emerging technology section, the authors discuss how online communities provide ELL youth with new forums for taking on powerful authorial and social roles and aspirations for learning languages, through online games, “fan fictions” “school-sanctioned literacy and language learning practices” (Black, 2007, here on p. 26). The concept of agency (as in activity theory) seems to be a key issue here. I suggest that we focus our discussion on agency. For example, do you think our classroom teaching supports the learner’s agency differently from these emerging technologies? How?

Have a wonder-full week!

- Chin-chi

update, Oct 27, 2007

Dear all,

We now have three wonderful assistants: (1) May has always been a great help. She is particularly good at paper works and accounting. (2) Susan, a first year PhD student. She is now taking care of the SCT seminar and study group. (3) We also have an undergraduate assistant, Vivi. All of them are really wonderful assistants. I think we are very fortunate to have their help.
2. I have just set up a web album for us at http://picasaweb.google.com/illt.nccu There are not many photos but there will be soon as we continue to develop. The album is also linked to our blog. If you go from the blog at http://illtnccu.blogspot.com/, you will have access to everything that the center has. Be sure to check out the blog and the book marks often. I put new information there whenever I see something interesting (such as conference calls for papers).

3. The photos you see in the album were taken at the study group on Friday. We had 9 attendees in this first meeting, including two people traveling all the way from Kaohsiung to join us. We had good discussions. One suggestion is for me to provide study questions to help people focus on important points. I promise to try my best. I thank all who attended the first meeting and wish that all of you will join us soon too.
More soon.
- Chin-chi

Our photo albums are up.

Please link to http://picasaweb.google.com/illt.nccu for photos.

Alternative research in foreign language education

外語教學另類研究演講系列：

東海大學曾瑾玲教授談語言教學之歷史性研究
Time: 96年12月6日 (Thursday)
Venue: Room 205 (with the PhD SLA class)
Theme: Hisotrical research in SLA

Professor Theresa Jiinling Tseng, Ph.D. in English (specialized in Composition and TESOL), Indiana University of Pennsylvania (U.S.) M.A. in Linguistics and M.A. in Speech Communication, California State University, Long Beach (U.S.)

(Abstract will be posted when available.)

E-learning speech

96年11月1日外語教學科技研究演講系列

美國國防語言學院謝貴蘭教授談
E-learning & Pedagogical Consideration （數位網路學習與教學法考量) (院辦)

時間：民國96年11月1日（星期四） 12：10~14：00
場所：季陶樓340309（外語學院口譯教室）
主辦單位：外語學院

演講者簡歷： 謝貴蘭，日本國立東京外國語大學日本語學和外語習得碩士，美國伊利諾大學香檳校區語言學碩、博士。美國國防語言學院副教授，目前擔任該學院教務諮詢委員，該課程研發中心教材研發部“環球語言網路支援系統”計畫主要研發員，該學院教務諮詢員和口語能力測試考官。曾擔任加利福尼亞州教師檢定認證華語組顧問委員和評分委員。
專長：語言學、外語習得、網路課程研發、外語教學法和口語能力測試。
研究方向：網路課程設計和教材研發、中英日對照比較、教學法和遠距離教學等。

SCT study group and seminar

96年10-11月舉辦Vygotskian 社會學習理論(SCT) 對外語教學相關研究之啟示一系列研討活動。包括：
1. 10月26日至11月23日每週五兩個小時的SCT讀書會
2. 11月24日團隊赴台中教大研討會發表論文
3. 11月26日邀Penn State 大學Steven Thorne教授主持研討會並與國內學者座談：
上午主題：SCT與外語教學科技之研究
下午主題：SCT與外語教學另類研究之契機與挑戰

報名請洽ccstudy@nccu.edu.tw

Children and Computers Interaction

A software company will sponsor our research projects on children and computers interaction. Let me know if you are interested.

Research Opportunites with a Vocational High School

十信高中應用英文科 agreed to work with us on research projects.

該科本年度評鑑得到94分最高等級，在教學品質與創意方面皆有令人激賞的成績。

Steven Thorne's visit

Let me know if you can present a paper on November 26, as a way of engaging in dialogues with him.

publications, meetings, and Fw: WorldCALL 2008

Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2007 05:16:02 +0800 (CST)

Dear all,

Here are some announcements regarding the research center:

1. We have one more new member: 藍文君老師, whose research areas as listed on the webpage are 中西文對比研究、西語教學、西班牙社會文化). Welcome!

2. If you have not sent me your publication list for this year, please do so quickly. We have a report to hand in. Thanks.

3. I attended the routine meeting by the College of Foreign Language yesterday and realized the urgency of getting the center going formally. We need to have a meeting soon to get our organization settled and set a concrete plan for our research and development. I am asking my assistant May to find somebody to help us with logistics. When we have somebody, I will be able to call for a meeting. Will let you know.

4. Our dean has introduced another invited speaker specialized in e-learning and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL). The speaker is expected to visit on a Wednesday at the end of October or beginning of November. More about this soon.

5. The meeting last Friday with the software company went well. I think the contract will give us a lot of research opportunities. Let me know if you are interested in a project. We can start planning for something together.

6. The information below is about WorldCALL to be held in Japan in August 2008, in case you are interested.

Have a wonder-full week.

- Chin-chi
*****************************

Subject: Now Accepting Applications for Full Scholarships to WorldCALL 2008Dear Colleagues,Please forgive the cross-posting of this important announcement. WorldCALL 2008, to be held in Fukuoka, Japan from August 5-8, 2008 announces the availability of full scholarships to the congress, including transportation, fees, lodging and a stipend for miscellaneous expenses. In keeping with our policy of "Equity and Access" these scholarships are only available to participants from countries that are not considered to be "Higher Income Economies" by the World Bank. The scholarships are thus based not only on merit but also on financial need. An accepted presentation is not a requirement for a scholarship award.We encourage all CALL scholars and practitioners, including graduate students in qualifying countries, to apply. Further information and the application form are available at: http://wc3scholar.info. The deadline for the receipt of applications is December 31, 2007.Further information about the conference itself and the paper submission process can be found at: http://www.j-let.org/~wcf/Please feel free to repost this message to mailing lists that might reach potential applicants.Collegially, --Thomas Robb & John Mugane, Co-Chairs, WorldCALL Scholarship Committee