vol13num1

ArticlesTextual, Genre and Social Features of Spoken Grammar: A Corpus-Based Approach Abstract | Article PDF Carmen Prez-Llantada Universidad de Zaragoza pp. 40-58 The Design of an Online Concordancing Program for Teaching about Reporting Verbs Abstract | Article PDF Joel Bloch, The Ohio State University pp. 59-78 Student-Initiated Attention to Form in Wiki-Based Collaborative Writing Abstract | Article PDF Greg Kessler, Ohio University pp. 79-95 Computer-Mediated Corrective Feedback and the Development of L2 Grammar Abstract | Article PDF Shannon Sauro University of Texas at San Antonio pp. 96-120

Volume 13, Number 1 February 2009 Special Issue on Technology and Learning Grammar ColumnsFrom the Editors Article PDF by Dorothy Chun & Irene Thompson pp. 1-2 From the Special Issue Editor Article PDF by Trude Heift pp. 3-4 Emerging Technologies Focusing on Form: Tools and Strategies Article PDF by Robert Godwin-Jones pp. 5-12 Announcements News from Sponsoring Organizations Article PDF pp. 13-16

ReviewsEdited by Sigrun Biesenbach-Lucas The Hockey Sweater CD-ROM 3D Courseware / Les Editions 3D Article PDF Reviewed by Lily Sorenson pp. 17-26 Teacher Education in CALL Philip Hubbard and Mike Levy Article PDF Reviewed by Fei Fei pp. 27-32 Blended Learning: Using Technology In and Beyond the Classroom Pete Sharma and Barney Barrett Article PDF Reviewed by Alison Leithner pp. 33-39

Call for Papers Multilateral Exchanges Article PDF pp. 121

Reviewer Acknowledgments Article PDF p. 122-123

Contact: Editors or Managing Editor Copyright 2009 Language Learning & Technology, ISSN 1094-3501. Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors.

About Language Learning & Technology

Language Learning & Technology is a refereed journal which began publication in July 1997. The journal seeks to disseminate research to foreign and second language educators in the US and around the world on issues related to technology and language education. Language Learning & Technology is sponsored and funded by the University of Hawai'i National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) and the Michigan State University Center for Language Education And Research (CLEAR), and is co-sponsored by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL). Language Learning & Technology is a fully refereed journal with an editorial board of scholars in the fields of second language acquisition and computer-assisted language learning. The focus of the publication is not technology per se, but rather issues related to language learning and language teaching, and how they are affected or enhanced by the use of technologies. Language Learning & Technology is published exclusively on the World Wide Web. In this way, the journal seeks to (a) reach a broad audience in a timely manner, (b) provide a multimedia format which can more fully illustrate the technologies under discussion, and (c) provide hypermedia links to related background information. Beginning with Volume 7, Number 1, Language Learning & Technology is indexed in the exclusive Institute for Scientific Information's (ISI) Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), ISI Alerting Services, Social Scisearch, and Current Contents/Social and Behavioral Sciences. Language Learning & Technology is currently published three times per year (February, June, and October).

Copyright 2009 Language Learning & Technology, ISSN 1094-3501. Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors.

Sponsors, Board, and Editorial StaffVolume 13, Number 1 SponsorsUniversity of Hawaiì National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR)

Co-SponsorCenter for Applied Linguistics (CAL)

Advisory and Editorial BoardsAdvisory Board Susan Gass Richard Schmidt Editorial Board Sigrun Biesenbach-Lucas Klaus Brandl Thierry Chanier Robert Godwin-Jones Lucinda Hart-Gonzlez Philip Hubbard Michelle Knobel Marcus Ktter Marie-Noelle Lamy Meei-Ling Liaw Lara Lomicka Carla Meskill Noriko Nagata John Norris Lourdes Ortega Jill Pellettieri Joy Kreeft Peyton Patrick Snellings Maggie Sokolik Susana Sotillo Mark Warschauer Georgetown University University of Washington Universit de Franche-Comte Virginia Commonwealth Univ. Second Language Tesing, Inc. Stanford University Montclair State University University of Mnster The Open University Tunghai Universit University of South Carolina SUNY-Albany University of San Francisco University of Hawaiì University of Hawaiì Santa Clara University Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC University of Amsterdam University of Cal., Berkeley Montclair State University Univ. of California, Irvine [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Michigan State University University of Hawaiì [email protected] [email protected]

Editorial StaffEditors Dorothy Chun Irene Thompson Associate Editors Managing EditorOutgoing Managing EditorIncoming Web Production Editor Book & Multimedia Review Editor Emerging Technologies Editor Copy Editors Trude Heift Carla Meskill Hunter Hatfield Matthew Prior Carol Wilson-Duffy Sigrun BiesenbachLucas Robert Godwin-Jones Stephanie Alexis Balunda Matthew Buscemi Elizabeth Pfaff Lavolette Suann Robinson University of CA, Santa Barbara The George Washington University (Emerita) Simon Fraser University SUNY-Albany University of Hawaiì University of Hawaiì Michigan State University Georgetown University Virginia Commonwealth University Indiana University University of Hawaiì University of Hawaiì University of Hawaiì [email protected] thompson@roadstarinternet. net [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Copyright 2009 Language Learning & Technology, ISSN 1094-3501. The contents of this publication were developed under a grant from the Department of Education (CFDA 84.229, P229A60012-96 and P229A6007). However, the contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and one should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

Information for ContributorsLanguage Learning & Technology is seeking submissions of previously unpublished manuscripts on any topic related to the area of language learning and technology. Articles should be written so that they are accessible to a broad audience of language educators, including those individuals who may not be familiar with the particular subject matter addressed in the article. General guidelines are available for reporting on both quantitative and qualitative research. Manuscripts are being solicited in the following categories: Articles | Commentaries | Reviews

Articles Articles should report on original research or present an original framework that links previous research, educational theory, and language teaching practices that utilize technology. Articles containing only descriptions of software, classroom procedures, or those presenting results of attitude surveys without discussing data on actual language learning outcomes will not be considered. Full-length articles should be no more than 8,500 words in length, including references, and should include an abstract of no more than 200 words. Appendices should be limited to no more than 1,500 words. We encourage articles that take advantage of the electronic format by including hypermedia links to multimedia material both within and outside the article. All article manuscripts submitted to Language Learning & Technology go through a two-step review process. Step 1: Internal Review. The editors of the journal first review each manuscript to see if it meets the basic requirements for articles published in the journal (i.e., that it reports on original research or presents an original framework linking previous research, educational theory, and teaching practices), and that it is of sufficient quality to merit external review. Manuscripts which do not meet these requirements or are principally descriptions of classroom practices or software are not sent out for further review, and authors of these manuscripts are encouraged to submit their work elsewhere. This internal review takes about 1-2 weeks. Following the internal review, authors are notified by e-mail as to whether their manuscript has been sent out for external review or, if not, why. Step 2: External Review. Submissions which meet the basic requirements are then sent out for blind peer review from 2-3 experts in the field, either from the journal's editorial board or from our larger list of reviewers. This second review process takes 2-3 months. Following the external review, the authors are sent copies of the external reviewers' comments and are notified as to the decision (accept as is, accept pending changes, revise and resubmit, or reject. Titles should be concise (preferably fewer than 10 words) and adequately descriptive of the content of the article. Some good examples are Social Dimensions of Telecollaborative Foreign Language Study "Reflective Conversation" in the Virtual Language Classroom Teaching German Modal Particles: A Corpus-Based ApproachCopyright 2007 Language Learning & Technology, ISSN 1094-3501. Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors.

Commentaries Commentaries are short articles, usually no more than 2,000 words, discussing material previously published in Language Learning & Technology or otherwise offering interesting opinions on theoretical and research issues related to language learning and technology. Commentaries which comment on previous articles should do so in a constructive fashion. Hypermedia links to additional information may be included. Commentaries go through the same two-step review process as for articles described above. Submission Guidelines for Articles and Commentaries Please list the names, institutions, e-mail addresses, and if applicable, World Wide Web addresses (URLs), of all authors. Also include a brief biographical statement (maximum 50 words, in sentence format) for each author. (This information will be temporarily removed when the articles are distributed for blind review.) Articles and commentaries can be transmitted in either of the following ways: 1. By electronic mail, send the main document and any accompanying files (images, etc.) to [email protected] 2. By mail, send the material on a Macintosh or IBM diskette to LLT NFLRC University of Hawai'i at Manoa 1859 East-West Road, #106 Honolulu, HI 96822 USA Please check the General Policies below for additional guidelines.

Reviews Language Learning & Technology publishes reviews of professional books, classroom texts, and technological resources related to the use of technology in language learning, teaching, and testing. Reviews should normally include references to published theory and research in SLA, CALL, pedagogy, or other relevant disciplines. Reviewers are encouraged to incorporate images (e.g., screen shots or book covers) and hypermedia links that provide additional information, as well as specific ideas for classroom or research-oriented implementations. Reviews of individual books or software are generally 1,200-1,600 words long, while comparative reviews of multiple products may be 2,000 words or longer. They can be submitted in ASCII, Rich Text Format, Word, or HTML. Accompanying images should be sent separately as jpeg or gif files. Reviews should include the name, institutional affiliation, e-mail address, URL (if applicable), and a short biographical statement (maximum 50 words) of the reviewer(s). In addition, the following information should be included in a table at the beginning of the review: Books Author(s) Title Series (if applicable) Publisher City and country Software Title (including previous titles, if applicable) and version number Platform Minimum hardware requirements Publisher (with contact information) Support offered


Year of publication Number of pages Price ISBN

Target language Target audience (type of user, level, etc.) Price ISBN (if applicable)

LLT does not accept unsolicited reviews. Contact Sigrun Biesenbach-Lucas if you are interested in having material reviewed or in serving as a reviewer ([email protected]). Sigrun Biesenbach-Lucas 21333 Comus Court Ashburn, VA 20147 General Policies The following policies apply to all articles, reviews, and commentaries: All submissions should conform to the requirements of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th edition). Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references and citations, which must be in APA format. Manuscripts that have already been published elsewhere or are being considered for publication elsewhere are not eligible to be considered for publication in Language Learning & Technology. It is the responsibility of the author to inform the editor of any similar work that is already published or under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors of accepted manuscripts will assign to Language Learning & Technology the permanent right to electronically distribute their article, but authors will retain copyright and, after the article has appeared in Language Learning & Technology, authors may republish their text (in print and/or electronic form) as long as they clearly acknowledge Language Learning & Technology as the original publisher. The editors of Language Learning & Technology reserve the right to make editorial changes in any manuscript accepted for publication for the sake of style or clarity. Authors will be consulted only if the changes are major. Authors of published articles, commentaries, and reviews will receive 10 free hard-copy offprints of their articles upon publication. Articles and reviews may be submitted in the following formats: HTML files Microsoft Word documents RTF documents ASCII text If a different format is required in order to better handle foreign language fonts, please consult with the editors.


Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol13num1/editors.pdf

February 2009, Volume 13, Number 1 pp. 1-2

FROM THE EDITORSWe hope that you have had a good start to the New Year, 2009. In 2008, Language Learning & Technology experienced another record-breaking year in terms of submissions to the journal: 150 articles from 25 countries were submitted. It is our pleasure to introduce this special issue guest edited by Trude Heift on Technology and Learning Grammar, the 5th special issue in our Back to Basics series. Trude has done an outstanding job with her special issue and has been an excellent Associate Editor of the journal. In addition to the four articles, we are pleased to include our regular, and always excellent, Emerging Technologies column by Bob Godwin-Jones, which complements the articles by discussing the latest tools and strategies for developing intelligent language tutors (ILTs). He explains how grammar exercises that focus on form need to be integrated, intelligent, and innovative. Sigrun Biesenbach-Lucas, our Reviews Editor, has assembled three reviews (two book reviews and one software review). The first review by Lily Sorenson evaluates The Hockey Sweater CD-ROM, the English version of the French software Le Chandail de Hockey, which was previously reviewed in the October, 2007, issue of LLT (Vol. 11, No. 3). Sorenson concludes that many activities on the English version of the CD-ROM could be beneficial to (younger) students learning English, particularly those with an interest in hockey and Canadian culture, but that the main shortcoming is a lack of adequate progression in activities from level to level and of appropriate accompanying activities for the reading passages (p. 25). The second review by Fei Fei of the book Teacher Education in CALL, edited by Phil Hubbard and Mike Levy, notes that the greatest strength of the book is that it provides practical information based on the authors experiences in a wide variety of environments and countries. In addition, it discusses many issues that still need to be addressed in teacher education in CALL. Alison Leithner reviews the book Blended Learning: Using technology in and beyond the language classroom by Pete Sharma and Barney Barrett and finds it to be potentially useful for teachers who are less experienced with employing technology in their L2 classes. She states that the authors overarching message is that technology should be an addition to the second language classroom and should not be used as a substitute for the instructor, whether it be in EFL/ESL or any other L2 classrooms. If you are not already a subscriber, please take a few minutes to fill out our free subscription form. This enables us to compile useful statistics about the readership of our journal. Lastly, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to our Managing Editor for the last three years, Hunter Hatfield. Hunter has done a superb job handling all of the correspondence among the editors, authors, and reviewers, and keeping us organized. We appreciate his great dedication to the journal and his excellent editorial talents. We wish him well as he finishes his Ph.D. dissertation. We would like to welcome Matthew Prior as Hunters successor and look forward to working with him.

Copyright 2009, ISSN 1094-3501

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From the Editors

We wish you a productive year ahead and look forward to receiving contributions from all over the world and especially those dealing with L2s other than English.

Sincerely, Irene Thompson and Dorothy Chun, Editors

Language Learning & Technology

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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol13num1/speced.pdf


FROM THE SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORThere was a time, not so long ago, when the teaching of grammar was strongly associated with endless drill and kill exercises that were performed in isolation from meaningful and authentic contexts. Grammar was most commonly taught as a discrete set of rigid rules to be memorized, practiced, and followed. However, newer technologies that lend themselves more easily to collaborative and explorative learning environments, particularly when combined with constructivist theories of second language acquisition, have drastically changed the approach to teaching and learning grammar. With this in mind, I am very pleased to introduce you to this special issue on technology and learning grammar that highlights and reflects some of these changes that have taken place. The four articles that are part of this special issue consider theoretical, pedagogical, and technological issues that come into play when teaching grammar to adults in collaborative and explorative learning environments. They highlight the innovations and vast possibilities for teaching grammar in the realm of computer-assisted language learning by reminding us of the diversity of research that still needs to be accomplished in order to gain a better understanding of grammar instruction in computer-based learning environments. The issue begins with Carmen Prez-Llantadas article, Enhancing Textual, Genre and Social Features of Spoken Grammer: A Corpus-based Approach, that discusses teaching and learning spoken grammar for English for Academic Purposes with reference to Bhatias (2002) multi-perspective model for discourse analysis. The article describes corpus-based instructional procedures, gives samples of learners linguistic output, and provides comments on the students response to this method of instruction. Data resulting from the assessment process and student production suggest that corpusinformed instruction grounded in Bhatias multi-perspective model can constitute a useful pedagogic approach to developing students understanding of grammar and their ability to use it accurately and appropriately. The second paper, The Design of an Online Concordancing Program for Teaching about Reporting Verbs, by Joel Bloch, describes the use of a web-based concordancing program to help students appropriately choose reporting verbs. Its interface has been designed for students to make lexical, syntactic, and rhetorical choices based on a preset number of criteria related to the decisions writers make in choosing reporting verbs. The article discusses design features of the interface for the teaching of reporting verbs as well as the implementation of a concordancing site that has been integrated with the teaching of grammar and vocabulary in an L2 academic writing class. The third article, entitled Studentinitiated Attention to Form in Wiki-based Collaborative Writing, by Greg Kessler, provides insights into student-initiated attention to form within the collaborative construction of a wiki among pre-service nonnative teachers of English while learning about the cultures of the English-speaking world. The article explores the degree to which these nonnative EFL teacher candidates attempt to correct their own grammar errors as well as those of their peers in a collaborative task. It also discusses the level of attention learners pay to grammar versus content revision and sheds light on the perception of the importance of grammar in the context of collaborative technologies.


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From the Special Issue Editor

The final paper, Shannon Sauros Computer-mediated Corrective Feedback and the Development of L2 Grammar, reports on a study that investigated the impact of two types of computer-mediated corrective feedback on the development of high intermediate and advanced adult learners of English. The study focuses on omission of the zero article with abstract noncount nouns during task-based interaction in the form of text-chat. Results indicate no significant advantage for either feedback type on immediate or sustained gains in target form knowledge, although significant immediate gains relative to the control condition are found. This special issue was a truly collaborative effort and I owe deep gratitude to LLT Editor Dorothy Chun and Managing Editor Hunter Hatfield for their contributions. I would also like to thank the many reviewers who provided invaluable feedback on the article submissions by generously contributing their time and expertise to this issue.

Trude Heift Special Issue Editor

REFERENCES Bhatia, V. (2002). Applied genre analysis: A multi-perspective model. Ibrica, 4, 3-19.


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EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES FOCUSING ON FORM: TOOLS AND STRATEGIESRobert Godwin-Jones Virginia Commonwealth University Using computers to help students practice and learn grammatical constructions goes back to the earliest days of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). With the coming of the Internet age, CALL began to focus more heavily on the new capabilities of group connectivity and computer-mediated communication. More recently, a gathering consensus has emerged that for adult learners, at least, an awareness of forms and rules is a vital component of online language learning (Skehan, 2003). Compared to the nature of earlier grammar-oriented applications, however, there is recognition today that a focus on form should not be an isolated, stand-alone activity but rather should be integrated into a communicationcentered, networked language learning environment. Contemporaneously, it has become clear that grammar exercises need to require more than single word or phrase answers. The older exercise formats, such as multiple choice and fill in the blanks, should be supplemented by new and engaging interactions with real communicative goals. Something more than just canned feedback should accompany the exercises. Feedback should be informative, contextual, and, whenever possible, individualized. The expectation today is that programs will guide students to pay attention to forms and structures, to gain facility in their use, and to extend their language knowledge/usage to more complex constructions. Stated succinctly, grammar exercises need to be integrated, intelligent, and innovative. Fortunately, technology developments and creative language professionals are moving us down this path. Recent trends in intelligent language tutors (ILT) are quite promising, despite the multiple challenges of natural language processing (NLP). Having over-promised and underachieved in the past, developers of ILT (also known as ICALL, intelligent CALL, or parser-based CALL) have mostly narrowed their ambitions and scope, resulting in actually deployed systems rather than just research prototypes. Advances in collecting and processing language corpora have helped in that process. At the same time, Web developments offer new approaches to exercise design and distribution. INTEGRATING GRAMMAR INTO TASK-BASED ACTIVITIES Much of the language instruction done today, either in the classroom or on the computer, revolves around specific tasks learners must carry out, either individually or in groups. Tasks lead learners to focus on communicating within concrete, realistic contexts, negotiating meaning towards reaching a specific goal, and gaining confidence in using the target language to achieve results. On a computer, that process can begin in the task planning stage. Building on the idea of pre-task vocabulary brainstorming, a possible partner activity could be a brief discussion of any constructions that learners anticipate using in the task, such as the subjunctive for hypothetical situations in Spanish. This would likely be most applicable to intermediate/advanced level students. The partner interaction could be done through a chat window integrated into the exercise environment, as suggested by Shaoqun Wu and Ian Witten (Wu &Witten, 2006). This provides the possibility of groups sharing ideas with one another. Integrating collaborative tools makes grammar exercises less isolating and more communicative. The kind of pre-task help suggested here is common in writing assignments (suggested sentence starters, possible sentence connectors, etc.), but is less frequent in the context of grammar exercises. Having some discussion of lexico-grammatical issues before the task begins may alert learners of their importance and possibly result in the use of more complex language. Post-task activities can also be integrated into a task to encourage focus on form. If students know, for example, that a product of their efforts will be shared with others (through a forum, blog, or wiki), they are likely to be more deliberate in their use of language. The notion of posting students work could also


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Focusing on Form: Tools and Strategies

be extended from individual efforts to class exchanges or school collaborations. A necessary condition for greater focus on form is a level of comfort on the part of the students with the task content. If the topic is too unfamiliar or challenging, it is less likely that learners will focus on form. It is also unlikely in that case that they will consider using more complex language constructions. Whether it is a task to be evaluated by the teacher or processed by a computer, there needs to be recognition of efforts by students to stretch their skills beyond familiar collocations and simple sentence formations. This is one of the most challenging tasks for software, even if some form of artificial intelligence is used. It is easy to check for expected and typical responses; dealing with creativity is much harder. Post-task activities provide opportunities for students to expand and internalize what they have learned. There should be a record kept of task results and new information learned, either by the learner or automatically by the program. Note should be taken of remediation that needs to be done. Ideally, this information should be used to help determine the next steps in the student's language learning. As we shall see, this is a crucial aspect of best practices in the design of ILT's. Follow-ups to assigned tasks can have students write a short summary of what they learned (shared electronically) or construct sentences or dialogs using the practiced/learned structures and vocabulary in different contexts. Another follow-up could be a game or contest in which correct and rapid use of practiced forms is required. An additional post-task exercise could be the consultation of a concordance in which learners find and analyze occurrences of phrases or structures. This brings into play the use of language corpora, another important element in the creation of intelligent language tutors. INTELLIGENT LANGUAGE TUTORS For language learners to be successful, tasks should not be disconnected activities but integrated into a learning environment that tracks and analyzes their progress, offers help as needed, suggests and provides logical next steps, and gives appropriate feedback. An intelligent computer program, like a good teacher, should be able to treat students as distinct individuals, provide learner-specific guidance, and design a customized learning path. This is a tall order, and not just from a technical standpoint, as knowledge is required in fields such as learning psychology, discipline-specific pedagogy, and logic. This is on top of expertise in software engineering and human/computer interaction. To create an advanced language learning application, one needs to add to the mix of expertise listed above knowledge in areas such as second language acquisition, computational linguistics, formal grammar theory, and natural language processing. Creating an ILT is not a project to be undertaken lightly, and it is not surprising that, even with teams of experts, many projects never reach production status. Marina Dodigovic's recent monograph (2005) offers a glimpse into the many considerations and efforts that go into just the preparatory stage of designing an ILT. Similarly, Markus Dickinson and Joshua Herring (Ohio State University) show how complex the process can be, even in a restricted task such as analyzing Russian verb conjugation. The ILT projects most likely to see the light of day are those that restrict the learner input to be processed and evaluated. This restriction might be through the exercise type, the length/complexity of the learner input, or aspects of the input which are excluded from analysis. For many areas of discrete grammar knowledge, little machine intelligence is required. To determine, for example, whether a German adjective ending is correct, it suffices to compare the student response to the known (single) correct answer. This kind of string matching is easy and fast but only provides responses of right or wrong to the learner. Intelligence lies in enabling the computer program to provide more nuanced and useful feedback to the learner. For German adjective endings, the system would need to know about variations based on gender, number, case, and context, and be able to evaluate a student error based on that information. Even such a small slice of language involves a large number of variables. Consider how much more complex a challenge it is to parse and evaluate even a short sentence. The system needs to analyze why a given response is incorrect in the given context, then provide options and help for learners


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to improve their response. It is little wonder that in the past ILT's were plagued by false positives (correct input marked incorrect) and missed incorrect constructions. In recent years, a number of ILT's have become available which represent considerable advances over earlier systems in a number of ways, including processing responsiveness, evaluative accuracy, and meaningful feedback. Among recent ILT projects which have attracted generally positive receptions are E-Tutor (formally German Tutor) from Trude Heift, Robo-Sensei (formerly Banzai, for learning Japanese) from Noriko Nagata, Spanish for Business Professionals from L. Kirk Hagen, TAGARELA (for beginning Portuguese) from Luiz Amaral and Detmar Meurers, and imPRESSions from Joan-Toms Pujol (for understanding English language media). Taken together as the current state of art in ILT's, there are a few best practices that can be gathered from these systems: Reusability. The design of the project should whenever possible enable (and encourage) re-use. There is so much effort and expense involved in creating an ILT that building on previous projects makes more sense here than in any other area of CALL. One design factor which aids reuse is modularity. This involves separating the processing of student input into separate programs or modules which can be run sequentially (as in E-Tutor) or selectively on demand (as in TAGARELA). This approach to programming has allowed for creation of programs like Boltun, re-using TAGARELA for Russian, and a Greek ILT building on E-Tutor. The modular design of E-Tutor allows particular parts of the system, such as the punctuation checker, to be turned on or off as desired. This also allows updating of only one section of the system at a time, or adding custom modules in the future. It also builds in the option of sharing only particular modules. Of course, grammar models and analysis processes will vary according to the target language, which makes some parts of the system non-transferrable. There may be as well technical hurdles to moving modules from one system to another. These are typically complex systems, which may use a variety of languages, most often Prolog and Lisp for NLP and Java, Perl, or Python for Web delivery. This makes it important that possible compatibility be built in to a new system from the beginning. The ultimate re-use of these systems would be the ability for non-programmers to add or edit content. In that sense, the evolution of ILT's seems to point towards the need for creation of user-friendly authoring interfaces. Flexible Feedback. Feedback should be tailored to a student's language level and based on what the system knows about the student's learning history. E-Tutor, for instance, bases feedback on the student's general level of German knowledge and incorporates a student model which tracks student work and calculates level adjustments (Heift, 2005). Knowledge of a student's language level can be important in processing errors correctly to determine whether the cause of an error is misspelling, carelessness, lack of knowledge, misapplication of a rule, interference from native language, etc. Additionally, E-Tutor features a Report Manager which allows students to review the work they have done, as well as to redo particular exercises. Generally, studies have shown advantages to providing rich meta-linguistic feedback (Heift, 2004; Murphy, 2007), although feedback that is too technical or uses unknown linguistic terminology is problematic. Providing feedback in the target language makes the system more widely deployable since students from a variety of native languages can use the same interface. Offering students choices in the extent and nature of the feedback would help to accommodate students with different learning styles. This is a feature of imPRESSions (Pujol, 2001). Since there is no definitive answer to what feedback should optimally look like, it seems logical to give students some choice in the matter. ILT's generally give students feedback one error at a time, so as not to overwhelm them with information. However, for more advanced students, or those working independently, a range of options based on whatever information the system can provide might be optimal. Learner Empowerment. Part of the rationale for offering students options is to encourage them to become independent learners. Whenever possible, users should be guided to find errors7


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themselves, as is done in an experimental ILT for Arabic. Putting students into a more active role makes it more likely that form features will be noticed and retained. The imPRESSions system implements a delayed two-step feedback system that encourages students to reflect on the signaled errors before receiving an explanation. Important for learner autonomy as well is the availability of additional context-aware help in the form of links to grammar tutorials, dictionaries, and other resources. More and more students and adults are looking to learn or maintain languages independent of classroom instruction, often adding or improving language skills for career reasons. In this environment, catering to autonomous learning is more important than ever. Beyond accuracy. The analysis of the learner's input should recognize and value accuracy but also complexity, fluency, and creativity. This is no trivial undertaking. But some systems do basic analysis for complexity such as comparing sentence lengths, calculating mean words per clause, examining syntactical complexity, or analyzing lexical sophistication (Gamper & Knapp, 2002). Fluency could be evaluated to some extent through timing of responses and spaced repetitions of prompt/responses. This would be more feasible with systems featuring voice input. Checking for possible use of appropriate idiomatic expressions or other desired collocations is also desirable, as this would provide an opportunity to praise students for risk-taking in the use of more complex language. Integration. Focus-on-form activities should not be delivered in isolation but be part of an integrated, communication-oriented interface. Just as praising learners for good responses helps to build a positive experience from the start, so too, does embedding grammar exercises within meaningful tasks which are communicatively significant. The exercises might be part of a reading or multimedia unit with ready availability of social networking and collaborative tools. The drill and kill exercises of the past were often ineffective not only because they often invite mindless completion but also become students tend to get bored and lose focus. The tendency towards modularity in the design of ILT's might permit more flexible integration of other online tools and services. In particular, enabling collaboration among students using the same ILT has the potential for students to learn from one another and become more fully engaged in the process. Another desirable enhancement to ILT's would be an improved and more contemporary user interface. A number of ILT's use a Java applet front end with unappealingly generic user controls and text display. Other interfaces use graphics that seem more appropriate in applications for children. In some cases, multiple windows result in a cluttered look that may be confusing for users. Few, if any, ILT's use graphics or animations in feedback; nor do they take advantage of audio or video. These would be especially useful features for elementary level learners, whose L2 reading skills preclude lengthy written feedback. ILT projects typically involve a team of linguists and programmers but not always an instructional designer. Design should not be an afterthought, but an aspect of the system taken seriously from the outset, just as much as the parsing algorithms and programming logic. Students today have considerably higher expectations in this area. Student reception of the software is likely to be a crucial factor for teachers in deciding whether to use an ILT. Another important consideration for teachers is whether the program can be successfully used in conjunction with the textbook currently being used. Noriko Nagata lists on her Web site the textbooks most frequently used in teaching Japanese in the U.S. and how each can be used with Robo-Sensei. In fact, the organization of Robo-Sensei, by cultural units, makes it easier to envision how the program could be used in virtually any Japanese language learning environment. Here, too, modularity, in this case in content organization, can be a significant benefit. The highlighting of cultural aspects of language learning is another example of a helpful integration of an ILT into a comprehensive online environment.


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LANGUAGE CORPORA AND LEARNING GRAMMAR Most ILT's make use of two different kinds of language corpora: a collection of texts from native speakers, presumably using standard language, and a collection of learner language. Outside of their use in ILT's, language corpora have not been widely used in language learning. There have even been questions raised in recent years about whether such collections of texts can truly be considered examples of authentic language use, since the texts do not appear in the context in which they were actually used (Kaltenbck & Mehlmauer-Larcher, 2005). Those intrepid souls who do use corpora in language learning, usually through concordances, do not always have a positive experience to recount, as in a recent report from Sweden which concluded, Judging from the results of our project it is not obvious that corpora facilitate students' understanding of grammatical principles (Vannestl & Lindquist, 2007, p. 344). While such forthrightness in an academic report is refreshing, it should not be taken as a wholesale repudiation of corpora use in a language learning environment. In fact, the authors found, as have others using corpora, that some students have very positive experiences. The consensus seems to point to the benefits of implementing corpora only at intermediate and above levels, and also of providing students with ample pre-task background and training (Chambers & O'Sullivan, 2004). Students beyond the elementary level can work with corpora deductively or inductively: students can be given an example of a structure and be asked to find additional occurrences or could be given sample constructions and assigned to come up with the rules governing their use. There is some evidence that small, more homogeneous corpora work better in learning environments (Braun, 2005; Kaltenbck & Mehlmauer-Larcher, 2005). There is always the danger in searching a large corpus of an overload of information. Having a smaller, carefully selected corpus makes it more feasible for a student to be able to expand from examining a single utterance to viewing that string in the context of the entire text. This aids in promoting one of the principal benefits of using a corpus, namely discovery learning. Part of the negative experiences some learners have had using corpora has to do with presentation (Vannestl & Lindquist, 2007). The use of corpora can be confusing and frustrating to learners in the form in which they are traditionally presented, the KWIC (key word in context) format. This shows a search term in a line-by-line report with the term surrounded by the text immediately preceding and following it. Because only snippets of text are given, some users may have difficulty in understanding the context in which the term appears. Rather than direct access to the corpora through a KWIC search, some programs provide indirect access by using the corpora as a source from which to draw examples and questions. An experiment in New Zealand uses the Greenstone digital library software to create a repository of texts that forms the basis of a set of language learning activities. The program is designed to teach Business English, and the texts for that purpose were retrieved from a surprising source, Wikipedia. However one may judge the reliability of Wikipedia, it certainly represents actual current language use of a certain genre. There is a tool for automatic retrieval of related Wikipedia articles, called the Wikipedia Miner. Metadata, to be used in automatic generation of exercises for the project, was extracted for each article using the OpenNLP, a set of tools for natural language processing. This clearly does not result in anything like a traditional, richly tagged language corpus. But it serves its purpose, and one could extend such an approach to other Web text collections. Corpora can be annotated in a very detailed or fairly cursory manner. In either case, much of that work has traditionally been done by hand, in a process that it similar to creating HTML, with words, clauses, and sentences sometimes having multiple identifying tags. New tools like OpenNLP and Callisto semiautomate that process. Other tools that are frequently used include TNT, GATE, and WordSmith Tools. Whether a language teacher can use a corpus or not depends ultimately on whether there is one available for the target language. While there are a number of corpora freely available for English, that number decreases significantly for other languages, especially less commonly taught ones. Fortunately, the


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availability of easy-to-use annotation tools makes it more likely that more text collections will be gathered and tagged. One of the recent trends has been a greater interest in the creation and pedagogical use of learner corpora. These are collections of learner texts, which are especially useful if encoded with error annotations. Learner corpora enable detection of key aspects of learner language by identifying typical error patterns. Learner corpora are being used in the creation of learner dictionaries and reference works, which list common errors associated with particular words, expressions, or constructions. There are also on-line tutorials that are built around learner corpora. The iWrite program from Iowa State University features a collection of annotated student essays encoded in XML. Students are able to generate pages which list both examples of errors and corrected versions of the sentences. They are also able to go directly from such a page to view the entire essay with the errors highlighted. Students also have the option of generating worksheets in which errors of a particular kind are highlighted. These are designed to be used within work groups. The eXXELant program, based on the Frida collection of French learner texts, similarly provides access to malformed and corrected versions of lexico-grammatical constructions. Collecting texts for a learner corpus is not easy for legal and practical reasons. However, they do offer tremendous potential for language learning. One could envision students creating the equivalent of a personal corpus, which collects, like a portfolio, the texts they have written (or collected) and which can then be searched for recall of particular vocabulary or constructions. Student and/or teacher notes could also be included. Such a set-up might enable students to more easily relate new material and structures to those already learned. OUTLOOK: AJAX ON THE RISE Five years ago (LLT, 2004), I wrote about dynamic Web page creation, which was in turn an update of a column from 10 years ago (LLT, 1998) on a similar topic. In 2004, XML had come into its own. Remote scripting (updating pages without reloads) and Web services (XML-based machine-to-machine communication) seemed to hold considerable promise for educational uses. Today remote scripting goes by the moniker of AJAX (asynchronous javascript and XML) and is one of the hottest technologies on the Web. This is true as well of Web services, which are fast becoming the backbone of how the Web operates. Yet language learning applications using either are few and far between. One simple example of an AJAX application is learnhanzi. This is code (consisting of HTML, CSS, and javascript) which displays a set of character flashcards on a page from a server database of over 7000 characters. The characters are loaded on demand but enough are buffered so that the user experiences no delay progressing from one character to the next. The character buffer is garbage-collected once the user progresses, so as not to create memory issues in the browser. Feedback is given when the Eval button is pressed. This is technology that could be quite usefully deployed in both ILT's and corpora-based applications. An advantage of AJAX is the ability to combine CSS and javascript to build quite sophisticated user interfaces. This allows a more quickly understood, easily navigable, and less cluttered user interface than is typically the case in ILT's and concordances. The use of AJAX would potentially solve, for example, the problem Joan-Toms Pujol encountered in imPRESSions where users had to scroll back and forth to consult different sections of a page (Pujol, 2001). Using CSS and javascript, different sections of the page could be collapsed until needed by the user. The fact that an AJAX application can draw down resources from a server behind the scenes means that database access is freely available without the necessity of waiting for a page to load. For some aspects of server-client communication in ILT's, as well as corpora-based applications, an AJAX interface could help reduce the latency that sometimes occurs. An example of the potential of AJAX for language learning applications can be seen in the recently released Google AJAX Language API. This is a set of functions which can be integrated into any Web


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page and feature language (machine) translation, language detection (evaluates a text and returns its probable language), and transliteration (converting from Latin input to other alphabets). Currently 85 languages and 29 translation pairs are supported. Google supplies an example of language detection and a simple Spanish vocabulary exercise. These are very basic examples, but the developers' guide gives a sense of some of the directions one could pursue with such a tool. It also demonstrates how easy it is to include the functionality of the API's by simply copying some CSS and HTML code and inserting references to a javascript library. This gives a possibility of integrating AJAX applications into any Web page. AJAX applications also run on many mobile phones, making it a better choice for mobile delivery than Flash or Java, which are less widely supported. To help developers of ILT's be as responsive as possible both to technology advances and user needs, it would be helpful to see more objective evaluations of those systems. Most of the detailed information and studies that are available comes from the developers themselves. It would be useful to have third parties conduct studies of the effectiveness of ILT's in comparison with other language learning options. Needed as well are studies of the usefulness of combining ILT's with other tools and services. There are quite a few recent studies of corpora use, which are very helpful in understanding the pros and cons of using corpora in language learning. This kind of balanced assessment would be welcome for ILT's. Informed reviews might help to build a consensus about optimal structure and functionality of ILT's, which could aid in sharing and interchangeability.

REFERENCES Braun, S. (2005). From pedagogically relevant corpora to authentic language learning contents. ReCALL, 17(1), 47-64. Chambers, A., & O'Sullivan, I. (2004). Corpus consultation and advanced learners writing skills in French. ReCALL, 16(1), 158-172. Dodigovic, M. (2005). Artificial intelligence in second language learning. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Limited. Gamper, J., & Knapp, J. (2002). A review of ICALL systems. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 15(4), 329-342. Heift, T. (2004). Corrective feedback and learner uptake in CALL. ReCALL, 16(2), 416 - 431. Heift, T. (2005). Inspectable learner reports for web-based language learning. ReCALL, 17(1), 32-46. Kaltenbck, G., & Mehlmauer-Larcher, B. (2005). Computer corpora and the language classroom: On the potential and limitations of computer corpora in language teaching. ReCALL, 17(1), 65-84. Murphy, P. (2007). Reading comprehension exercises online: The effects of feedback, proficiency and interaction. Language Learning & Technology, 11(3), 107-129. Nagata, N. (2002). BANZAI: An application of natural language processing to web-based language learning. CALICO Journal, 19(3), 583-599. Pujol, J-T. (2001). Did CALL feedback feed back? Researching learners use of feedback. ReCALL, 13(1), 79 - 98. Skehan, P. (2003). Focus on form, Tass, and technology. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 16(5), 391-411. Vannestla, M. & Lindquist, H. (2007). Learning English grammar with a corpus: Experimenting with concordancing in a university grammar course. ReCALL, 19, 329-350.


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Wu, S., & Witten, I.H. (2006) Towards a digital library for language learning. Proceedings of the European Conference on Digital Libraries (ECDL 2006), 341-352.

RESOURCE LIST Intelligent Language Tutors & Related Projects E-Tutor Spanish for Business Professionals TAGARELA imPRESSions Freetext Satzfee Robo-Sensei :: home ELISA - English Language Interview Corpus as a Second-Language Learning Application ELDIT - Elektronisches Lern(er)wrterbuch Deutsch Italienisch

Corpora Tools Callisto TNT WordSmith Tools GATE, A General Architecture for Text Engineering Glosser-WeB


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News From Our Sponsors

NEWS FROM SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONSSponsors University of Hawaiì National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR) Co-Sponsor Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)

University of Hawai'i National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC)The University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center engages in research and materials development projects and conducts workshops and conferences for language professionals among its many activities. 2008 SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCH FORUM With the theme, Exploring SLA: Perspectives, Positions, and Practices, the Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) returns to the University of Hawaii at Manoa for the third time on October 17-19, 2008 (with the NFLRC serving as co-sponsor). Highlights include plenary talks by Harald Clahsen (University of Essex), Alan Firth (Newcastle University), Carmen Muoz (Universitat de Barcelona), & Richard Schmidt (University of Hawaii at Manoa); 4 colloquia; and over 150 paper and poster sessions. Visit our website for more information. 1ST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION & CONSERVATION: SUPPORTING SMALL LANGUAGES The 1st International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC) will be held at the University of Hawaii at Manoa from March 12-14, 2009. There will also be an optional opportunity to visit Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawai'i, in an extension of the conference that will focus on the Hawaiian language revitalization program, March 16-17. Conference sponsors include the UH National Foreign Language Resource Center, National Resource Center East Asia, and Center for Pacific Island Studies. It has been a decade since Himmelmann's article on language documentation appeared and focused the field into thinking in terms of creating a lasting record of a language that could be used by speakers as well as by academics. This conference aims to assess what has been achieved in the past decade and what the practice of language documentation within linguistics has been and can be. It has become apparent that there is too much for a linguist alone to achieve and that language documentation requires collaboration. This conference will focus on the theme of collaboration in language documentation and revitalization and will include sessions on interdisciplinary topics. Plenary speakers include Nikolaus Himmelmann (University of Mnster), Leanne Hinton (UC Berkeley), Paul Newman (Indiana University & University of Michigan), and Phil Cash Cash (University of Arizona). CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Abstracts are due by September 15, 2008, with notification of acceptance by October 17, 2008. We ask for abstracts of 400 words and a 50-word summary for inclusion in the conference program. All abstracts will be submitted to blind peer review by international experts on the topic. See conference website for more details.


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NEW NFLRC PUBLICATIONS Documenting and Revitalizing Austronesian Languages The most recent addition to our group of online journals, Language Documentation and Conservation, released this, its first Special Publication. Also available online, the case studies found in this volume lead to a discussion of changes in the field of linguistics and the alliances which are being built between linguists and community language activists. The 11 chapters in the book touch upon the key themes of international capacity building initiatives, documentation and revitalization activities, and computational methods and tools for language documentation. Check out our many other publications. OUR ONLINE JOURNALS SOLICIT SUBMISSIONS Language Learning & Technology is a refereed online journal, jointly sponsored by the University of Hawaiì NFLRC and the Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR). LLT focuses on issues related to technology and language education. For more information on submission guidelines, visit the LLT submissions page. Language Documentation & Conservation is a fully refereed, open-access journal sponsored by NFLRC and published exclusively in electronic form by the University of Hawaii Press. LD&C publishes papers on all topics related to language documentation and conservation. For more information on submission guidelines, visit the LD&C submissions page. Reading in a Foreign Language is a refereed online journal, jointly sponsored by the University of Hawaiì NFLRC and the Department of Second Language Studies. RFL serves as an excellent source for the latest developments in the field, both theoretical and pedagogic, including improving standards for foreign language reading. For more information on submission guidelines, , visit the RFL submissions page.

Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR)CLEAR's mission is to promote the teaching and learning of foreign languages in the United States. Projects focus on materials development, professional development training, and foreign language research. MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT Selected Products The list below comprises just some of our free and low-cost materials for language educators. Be sure to visit our website occasionally for updates and announcements on new products: http://clear.msu.edu. NEW! Introductory Business German (CD-ROM) This CD-ROM provides a condensed, highly-focused set of activities intended for use by business professionals who conduct business with Germans and German companies and wish to learn more about the German business and economics environment. NEW! Celebrating the Worlds Languages: A Guide to Creating a World Languages Day Event (guide) This publication provides a step-by-step guide to planning "World Languages Day," a university event for high school students designed to stimulate interest in learning languages and to highlight the importance of cultural awareness.


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La phontique franaise (CD-ROM) This cross-platform multimedia program consists of interactive lessons that can be used by French teachers to learn how to teach pronunciation, or by advanced students working independently. CLEARs Rich Internet Applications initiative has been underway for over a year. RIA is a research and development lab where our programmers are working on free tools that language teachers can use to create online language teaching materials or have their students create activities themselves! o NEW! Broadcasts (create your own podcasts) o Audio Dropboxes (put a dropbox in any web page; students recordings get put into your dropbox automatically) o Conversations (record prompts for students to do virtual interviews and conversations) o Mashups (combine media elements to create a new resource for language teaching) o Viewpoint (record or upload videos to link from other sites or embed inside your own web pages) o SMILE (tool for creating interactive online exercises) MIMEA: Multimedia Interactive Modules for Education and Assessment (German, Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian; online video clips and activities) More Rich Internet Applications Introductory Business Chinese

Coming Soon!

CONFERENCES CLEAR exhibits at local, regional, and national conferences year-round. We hope to see you at ACTFL, CALICO, Central States, MiWLA, NCOLCTL and other conferences.

UPCOMING CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

MiWLA: Lansing, MI, October 23-24, 2008 Session: World Languages Day: Five Years of Free Fun! Session: Online Language Portfolios: A Dynamic Display of Learning Session: The Technologies Your Students Use (and that you should, too) Session: Teaching Culture in FL Classrooms: Video Interviews and Critical Incidents Session: Opening Minds to the World through a World Languages Day

ACTFL: Orlando, FL, November 21-23, 2008

NEWSLETTER CLEAR News is a biyearly publication covering FL teaching techniques, research, and materials. Contact the CLEAR office to join the mailing list or check it out on the Web at http://clear.msu.edu/newsletter/.

The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)The Center for Applied Linguistics is a private, nonprofit organization that promotes and improves the teaching and learning of languages, identifies and solves problems related to language and culture, and serves as a resource for information about language and culture. CAL carries out a wide range of activities in the fields of English as a second language, foreign languages, testing and assessment, cultural education, and linguistics.


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Featured Resources: CAL News CAL News is our electronic newsletter created to provide periodic updates about our projects and research as well as information about new publications, online resources, products, and services of interest to our readers. Visit our Web site to sign up. Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages The Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages (the Alliance) consists of individuals and organizations who share a commitment to advancing language development for heritage language speakers in the United States. The Alliance is committed to fostering the development of the heritage language proficiencies of individuals in this country as part of a larger effort to educate members of our society who can function professionally in English and other languages. The Alliance has revamped its Web site to offer expanded content and improved navigation. National K-12 Foreign Language Survey Underway CAL conducts a national survey of foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools every decade to gain greater understanding of current patterns and shifts over time in enrollments, the number of schools offering foreign language classes, the types of foreign language offerings, foreign language curricula and methodologies, teacher qualifications and training, and the effects of NCLB, among other issues. We are currently conducting the third survey to be able to show trends in foreign language education at three points in time (1987, 1997, 2007). For further details, visit the foreign language survey Web page. Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) Visit the CREATE Web site to learn more about CREATE, its research, and upcoming events. To keep current on CREATE activities, sign up to receive an electronic newsletter and periodic announcements. Spotlight on Language Series In support of the Discover Languages campaign led by ACTFL, CAL has developed a regular Web series to provide information about specific languages. These language spotlights are introductory in nature and are intended to encourage readers to explore these languages and CALs work with them in more detail. Different languages will be highlighted periodically. CAL Services CAL provides a variety of professional development and technical assistance services related to language education and assessment needs. Featured Publications: An Insiders Guide to SIOP Coaching Developing Reading and Writing in Second Language Learners Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education, Second Edition Practitioners Toolkit: Working With Adult English Language Learners Whats Different About Teaching Reading to Students Learning English?

Visit CALs Web site to learn more about our projects, resources, and services.


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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol13num1/review1.pdf


REVIEW OF THE HOCKEY SWEATER CD-ROMCD-ROM Platform The Hockey Sweater Windows 2000 and XP Mac OS X 10.3 or higher CD drive QuickTime V.7 Designed for 1024 x 768 resolution 3D courseware/ Les ditions 3D http://www.editions3d.ca/hockey Website: http://editions3d/hockey (in English) or http://www.editions3d.ca/hockey/fr/Depannage.shtml (in French) English Learners of English as a second language (intermediate to advanced level) especially Canadian English language learners $34.95 - CD-ROM Teachers Guide (172 pp.) - $34.95 CD-ROM + Teachers Guide - $60.00 (special offer)

Software and hardware requirements Publisher Support offered Target language Target audience Price

Review by Lily Sorenson, Georgetown University The Hockey Sweater CD-ROM is intended for young English language learners ages 11 and up and adult literacy learners whose English proficiency ranges from high beginning to advanced. The CD is meant to be used in an English language classroom or for self-study. A 172-page teachers guide provides a transcript of the video on the CD, notes and information about each of the activities, and teaching ideas. The activities on the CD-ROM focus on the theme of hockey and the classic Canadian story The Hockey Sweater: A Childhood Recollection by Roch Carrier. This story, set in the winter of 1946 in a small city in Quebec, Canada, is about a young boy whose life centers around hockey. The boy and his friends idolize the Montreal Canadiens star player Maurice Richard and wear sweaters like his. One day, the young boy receives a new sweater in the mail, but it is from the Toronto Maple Leafs instead of the one he was hoping for, namely that of Maurice Richard. His mother forces him to wear the new sweater. He feels deeply embarrassed wearing the sweater when he plays hockey with his friends. He loses his temper and is sent to church to pray for forgiveness; instead, he prays for moths to eat up his new sweater. A review of Le Chandail de Hockey CD-ROM, the French version of The Hockey Sweater, was published recently (Caws, 2007) in Language Learning & Technology. Here, the English version of The Hockey Sweater is reviewed to evaluate the relevance this CD might have for teaching and learning English as a second language. The English version of the CD-ROM, like its French counterpart, is divided into three periods to represent the divisions of a hockey game. There are two other sections, Zone and Encounters, both of which provide expanded writing activities and opportunities to learn about the creators of the the CDROM and the writer of the original story, Roch Carrier. The interactive activities on the CD-ROM are geared toward three specific proficiency levels: advanced beginner, called Peewee; intermediate, called Junior; and advanced, called Pro (for professional), reminiscent of levels in hockey. The levels of the interactive activities are indicated with hockey sticks; one hockey stick is used for Peewee, two for Junior, and three for the Pro level. The addition of the hockey sticks makes the CD-ROM appealing to young English language learners and also provides a quick way to identify the level for which an activity is intended. Overall, The Hockey Sweater provides good interactive listening, reading, vocabulary, and culture activities. Caws states that [a]t first glance, Le chandail de hockey CD-ROM seems to require

Copyright 2009. ISSN 1094-3501

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Lily Sorenson

Review of The Hockey Sweater CD-Rom

a fairly good understanding of the [target] language. At the same time, she also suggests that because all the functions can be repeated more than once (including the exercises), and because the help functions offer both French and English explanations, Le chandail de hockey offers a good balance of autonomy and guided activity (Caws, 2007, p. 36). The Hockey Sweater similarly fosters autonomy by allowing students to repeat activities; however, it falls a bit short in offering a good balance of guided practice. There is a lack of adequate progression and scaffolding from level to level for all activities, as described in more detail below. Xu (2004) states that an important criterion to consider when choosing ESL materials is to make sure that the materials show evidence of a developmental progression of content (p. 3). The Hockey Sweater is set up in the same manner as described by Caws (2007) for the French version. Both include the same animated film The Sweater as well as similar activities. One difference between the English and the French versions can be found in the 2nd Period Peewee listening/reading comprehension activity: the English version contains 12 questions about the story content whereas the French version contains almost twice as many, 22 questions. Another difference surfaces in the Help Menu; Caws (2007) states that in Le Chandail de Hockey the Help Menu is available in both English and French. In The Hockey Sweater, it is available only in English.

Figure 1. Sample listening and vocabulary activity. First Period The 1st Period in both The Hockey Sweater and Le Chandail de Hockey focuses on listening activities. In The Hockey Sweater, this section consists of segments labeled The Sweater, Video Clips, Hockey, Oral Questions, and Highlights. The Sweater is an animated, 10-minute video of Roch Carriers


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classic story. It is the main feature of the entire CD-ROM in that all of the activities either use parts of the story or focus on Canadian culture or hockey with the story used as a basis for developing listening comprehension. The story on the video is narrated by Roch Carrier, who has a fairly strong French accent. A benefit of having Roch Carrier tell the story is that it makes the material on the CD quite authentic as Carrier is also the author of the story. It may be difficult for some students to understand some words due to Carriers French accent; however, the authors of the CD-ROM have partially solved this problem in the 2nd Period in the activity Exploring the Story, where a button labeled Coach allows learners to replay the video while listening to a male native speaker narrating the story. In several of the lower level listening activities, parts of the recording are Carrier telling the story; however, no Coach is provided. As a result, these activities may be somewhat difficult for lower level students. The Video Clips section is helpful in that it provides a place where students can replay eight different segments of the video to gain a deeper understanding of the storys content. These segments summarize the main points of the story and allow students to focus on capturing parts of the story they may not have understood before going on to comprehension activities. If students forget a part of the story, they can come back to this section and repeat it. The section entitled Hockey is a listening and vocabulary activity geared towards Peewee-level students. In this activity, students click on the listening icon and listen to a spoken word. All of the vocabulary is related to hockey and in fact comes from the video. Students match what they hear to the appropriate picture (Figure 1). This activity can help students learn the vocabulary items and improve their listening skills. In the Oral Questions activity, students listen to twelve different questions. With each question, they also listen to and choose the correct answer about the story, spoken in standard English by a native English-speaking female voice. The activity is geared toward the Peewee level; however, the questions become progressively more difficult. Questions 1-7 are easier, and often the answer can be found in the picture on the screen, but the answers may not necessarily be related to hockey or to the story. For example, Question 7 asks, What is that blue figure on the table? The answer is a cookie jar, which is not mentioned at all in the story. The Teachers Guide suggests that Questions 8-12 may be too challenging for the Peewee level but could be more appropriate for the Junior level (The National Film Board of Canada, 2007). Indeed, questions 8-12 are more difficult, but the answers can be found in the story. For example, Question 11 asks, Why does Roch get a penalty? The answer, There are too many players on the ice, is provided in the story as He gave me a penalty because there were already five players on the ice. For this reason, question 11 may in fact be easier for students to answer than question 7. The Highlights section is geared toward the Junior level. In this activity, students listen to short parts of the video and match these to appropriate pictures. For example, in one listening segment, students hear, That was too much! It was too unfair! This is persecution! Its just because of my blue sweater! The student has to match these words to the picture of a yelling boy (Figure 2). Some of these sentences have more to do with remembering the order of events in the story than creating a match between what students hear and what they see. These short listening segments are parts of the video narrated by Roch Carrier, so, due to his French accent, they may be a little difficult for some students to understand as no Coach is provided.


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Figure 2. Sample activity with listening highlights of the video. Second Period The 2nd Period of The Hockey Sweater consists of reading and listening activities for each of the different levels. The first activity, entitled Exploring the Story, is not marked for any level. As Roch Carrier tells the story The Hockey Sweater: A Childhood Recollection, a video labeled The Hockey Sweater is shown on the screen. The video contains pictures that correspond with the story. While listening to the story the text can be followed along on the left side of the screen. This allows students to build sound-word relationships and provides input in English, both visually and auditorily. In addition, short paragraphs about 18 different Canadian culture topics related to the story can be accessed on the right. Some of the cultural topics include the Montreal Canadiens, Hockey Night in Canada, the Ancient Craft of Recycling, the Skating Rink, Anatomy of a Wood Stove, and the Rocking Chair. Students can choose to make this information visible or hide it if it is distracting. In this activity, students can also fast forward or rewind the video. If they want to focus on reading the short cultural paragraphs on the right, it is necessary to pause the video, read the paragraph, and then fast-forward the video to the next cultural topic. It is helpful for students to see how these cultural topics relate to and provide background to the story, but it would also have been helpful for students and teachers if these cultural paragraphs could have been viewed separately. This would have allowed them to read and discuss these cultural topics in more depth and in any order. More information about many of these topics is located in the Heritage and Hockey sections in the 3rd Period; however, the information in the 3rd Period is much longer and would be harder for a lower level student to understand. In addition, several different types of listening and reading activities are available in the 2nd Period. First, the CD offers interactive vocabulary exercises. At the Peewee level, these include hockey-related vocabulary and clothing, such as skates, ice, hockey stick, cap, coat, and tie. In these activities, students


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drag and drop words to match with pictures. At the Junior level, the words relate to hockey and home, such as gloves, team, referee, sink, tablecloth, rug, and chest of drawers. Finally, at the Pro level, the vocabulary is related to hockey and clothing, such as the names of famous Canadian hockey players, in addition to plaid skirt, pleated skirt, felt hat, and overalls. In the vocabulary activities at the Junior and Pro levels, students match words to definitions instead of pictures. Overall, the words seem to have been selected randomly. While many are related to hockey, or an item or event from the story, many words, such as jar and tablecloth at the Junior level, are not mentioned in the story. In addition, consistent progression from level to level is missing. For example, nine of the ten hockey-related words for the Peewee and Junior levels are the same. At the Pro level, the hockey vocabulary activity requires students to know about specific famous Canadian hockey players, such as Abby Hoffman and Frank Boucher, about whom students read in the 3rd Period. This task is more a comprehension than a vocabulary activity. The majority of English language learners are likely to be familiar with neither hockey nor the players, so this activity is difficult to perform without reading about these players first. The instructions in the Help Menu tell students that the answers to the vocabulary questions for the Pro level can be found in the 3rd Period, but the Help Menu does not instruct students to read about the players in the 3rd Period before doing this activity. It would have been better to include the Pro level vocabulary activity in the 3rd Period instead of in the 2nd Period. The second type of interactive activity included in the 2nd Period is a listening/reading comprehension activity. In this activity, students can read and/or listen to questions about the story spoken in standard English. Students choose the appropriate answer by clicking on one of four answer choices and are given feedback about why their choice is correct or not. Overall, there are twelve comprehension questions for each level, and the questions progress in difficulty from level to level. The third kind of listening and reading activity available in the 2nd Period is cloze dictation, in which students listen to a short passage from the story and type in missing words on the screen. The Junior level includes two additional cloze activities: one is based on a poem located in the cultural section of the CD, and the other focuses on grammar in which students can choose to practice filling in either verbs, nouns, prounouns, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, or conjunctions in a passage from the story. However, the words that students are required to supply and the passages that are chosen for the different levels do not seem to progress in difficulty from level to level. For example, at the Junior level, punishment is one of the words needed in the cloze activity, and the much more basic write is one at the Pro level. Both the spelling and meaning of punishment are more complex than those of write. One difference between levels is that the number of cloze blanks increases, albeit inconsistently: the longest passages can, interestingly, be found at the Junior level, not, as might be expected, at the Pro level. Another difference between the levels is that, at both the Peewee and Junior levels, students have the option of hearing the missing words in isolation, but this option is not available at the Pro level. Overall, the Junior level offers the most cloze activity choices as well as the most challenging ones. This may require teachers to provide students at the Junior level with additional support on those activities that are more challenging. Teachers may also need to create additional appropriate activities for the Peewee and Pro levels. The final type of listening and reading activities included in the 2nd Period consists of two plot puzzles for each proficiency level. These puzzles invite students to listen again to the same short passages of the story that were used in the cloze activities, as well as an additional passage from the story. Students arrange sentences and phrases from the listening passages in the correct sequence, thus demonstrating comprehension. The difference between proficiency levels is that, at the Peewee level (Figure 3), students arrange words and short phrases in sequential order whereas at the Junior and Pro levels there is no focus on words, but only on phrases. However, again there is no clear progression in difficulty from the Junior level to the Pro level.


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Figure 3. Sample Peewee level plot puzzle. Third Period The 3rd Period on the CD-ROM contains information about Canadian culture and the sport of hockey. The first section, labeled simply Hockey, includes fourteen reading passages related to hockey. These passages, written by the authors of the CD-ROM, require students to have a fairly good understanding of English because of the advanced vocabulary that is used. Most of the passages take up about one to two pages on the screen. While the texts are not accompanied by comprehension questions, the Teachers Guide does provide a few suggestions for accompanying activities that can be done in the classroom. For example, one of the passages, Forever Rivals, provides information about the rivalry between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Teachers Guide gives the following suggestions: ESL learners are usually not familiar with the history of Canada and not aware of the roots of the rivalry between English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians. This essential background knowledge is outside of the scope of the CD and has to be introduced in ways appropriate to the learners. In every country there are rivalries between groups of different backgrounds, and ESL learners can be engaged in discussions by sharing their knowledge about rivalries in their own countries (The National Film Board of Canada, 2007, p. 71). The activities in the Hockey section are not specified for any particular level, but the passages provide information about hockey that might help students understand the story of The Hockey Sweater better. For example, there is a brief history of hockey, information about rule development, the hockey hall of fame, and the Toronto Maple Leafs.


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The next section includes two short activities related to The Hockey Song, which was judged to be the song that best capture[s] the spirit of hockey (The National Film Board of Canada, 2007, p. 82). This song would probably be very familiar to Canadians but unfamiliar to ESL students. The first activity allows students to read the words to the song as they listen to it; the tune is catchy and students could enjoy learning the words as well as more about hockey. The other activity is a cloze dictation for the Junior level using words that occurred in the song. However, neither activity stresses comprehension of the song, only recognition and memorization of vocabulary items. The third section available in the 3rd Period is entitled The Stars. This section includes biographies, about three or four paragraphs in length, of 31 famous Canadian hockey players, mostly from the past, and a hockey card (or trading card) for each. A link to brief recorded, although inauthentic, fan comments gives students opportunities for more listening practice. However, some of the vocabulary, including adjectives and idioms in these comments, would require teacher explanations for most ESL learners. For example, fan comments include Howe is a timeless, goal-scoring machine and He was a shooters worst nightmare! A Who Am I? quiz about the 31 hockey players can be accessed at any time by clicking on the Who Am I? icon at the bottom of the page. The quiz could be a useful comprehension activity after students have read the information about the individual players; nevertheless, some students may not find this activity interesting unless they are hockey fans. The fourth section in the 3rd Period is Eatons Catalogue, an interactive activity which uses some of the actual pages from the department store Eatons Fall-Winter 1946-47 mail-order Catalogue and which allows students to browse the catalogue and search for different items. This section of the CD-ROM includes two different types of interactive activities. The first one is a reading activity of the Top Ten Uses of the Catalogue. Students can learn about how people used the catalogue in 1946-47. Students may find the Top Ten Uses interesting because people do not use catalogues in the same way today. For example, the number 10 use claims that the catalogue was used to decorate the walls of outhouses and also as toilet paper, which students may find unbelievable. Due to the high level of vocabulary needed for comprehension, such as outhouse, strap, paper dolls, scrapbooks, and homesteaders, this section of the CD would be most appropriate for advanced-level students. The second interactive activity includes an Eatons Catalogue order form, which students can use for simulated catalogue ordering. Three different order requests are presented for each level; these differ in the amount and type of detail that students have to find in the catalogue and keep track of. For example, at the Peewee level students are asked to order the most expensive sweater, whereas at the Pro level they are asked to order the most expensive item in the catalogue. This activity requires students to practice the skills of skimming and scanning. A teacher will have to check this assignment to see if students filled out their order forms correctly as no feedback is provided by the computer, perhaps a minor shortcoming. Two links connect Eatons Catalogue to the clothing vocabulary activities in the 2nd Period. Potentially well intended, these links are, however, a little confusing because they seem to take students to new activities when in fact they are just links to what students have already completed. The last section in the 3rd Period is entitled Heritage. It includes nine readings (seven of which were written by the authors of the CDROM) about different aspects of Canadian culture and is similar to the first section, Hockey. Just like the Hockey texts, these passages require students to have a fairly extensive English vocabulary. While they do not include comprehension activities, they do provide helpful and interesting cultural information about Canada that could help students understand the background and context for The Hockey Sweater. A good time for teachers to include these reading passages in classroom discussion would be while students are discussing the cultural notes from the Explore the Story activity in the 2nd Period.


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Overtime Further interactive activities on the CD-ROM are located under the heading Zone, which includes one new section, Dream Team, as well as a link to the Eatons Order Form activity in the 3rd Period. The Dream Team activity allows students to

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