Events http://conf.posterous.com Conferences, Seminars, Webinars on education, linguistics, language learning/teaching, e-learning, m-learning posterous.com Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:10:00 -0700 The Asian Conference on Language Learning - June 10-12 2011, Osaka Japan http://conf.posterous.com/the-asian-conference-on-language-learning-jun http://conf.posterous.com/the-asian-conference-on-language-learning-jun
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CONFERENCE THEME: "Connecting Theory and Practice"

Call For Papers: The abstract submissions deadline is April 1, 2011

The Asian Conference on Language Learning 2011 will be held alongside the Asian Conference on Technology in the Classroom. Registrants for either conference will allow attendees the option of attending sessions in the other.

(Originally Posted on February 03, 2011 at 11:00 AM)

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Abstract 

Detecting the influence of L1 syntactic patterns on Japanese EFL learners’ Interlanguage grammar

Yamauchi, Uchida & Kojima

In this presentation, the authors discuss findings from their ongoing study (2010-2013, supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research: 22520573) that aims to (i) identify and describe major features of Japanese EFL learners’ interlanguage grammar at an earlier stage in development, focusing primarily on errors possibly influenced by the L1 syntax, and (ii) develop a practicable way for language teachers to progressively build learner corpora using data from their own classes.

During the 2010 fall semester, the authors set up several writing tasks for their classes using Moodle forums, which provided a secure environment within which students could experiment with online interactive English activities. The students’ forum posts were assembled into a learner corpus, for which purpose a tool is currently being developed to convert a Moodle xml file into a standard spreadsheet format.

The focus of this presentation is on common errors that have been identified so far in the students’ writing that strongly suggest the influence of Japanese syntactic patterns, including: (a) mapping a topic-comment construction in Japanese to a subject-predicate construction, as in the use of a be-verb in place of the Japanese topic marker wa; (b) omission of reference to known information, where no anaphora are normally used in Japanese; and (c) confusion of predicate-argument relations, especially with psychological predicates.

The observation and analysis of the initial set of learners’ writing data suggest that seemingly different grammatical errors may be derived from a common feature of interlanguage grammar. A further elaborated short list of such interlanguage features will be developed for teachers to help learners to notice problems and to restructure their interlanguage grammars.

 

Presentation Slides

20110612_osaka_ACLL_Yamauchi_Uchida_Kojima.pdf Download this file

 

Updated on June 13, 2011

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Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:00:00 -0700 JALT CALL 2011, June 3 - 5 at Kurume University http://conf.posterous.com/jalt-call-2011 http://conf.posterous.com/jalt-call-2011
Jaltcall2011
Check out this website I found at jaltcall.org

The 2011 JALT CALL SIG Conference will be held on June 3 - 5 at Kurume University, Mii Campus, in Fukuoka.

The theme will be Building Learning Environments

Proposal submission : February 15

 

Proposal Abstract 

(Yamauchi & Uchida) 

Overcoming Barriers to Student Engagement in Using English Online

Japanese university students not majoring in English have few opportunities to use English outside of the classroom. In this study, online learning environments have been used to compensate for this disadvantage of EFL contexts. The authors chose Moodle forums, which provided a secure platform for students to experiment with online interactive English activities, such as discussions, sharing work, and posting comments. Also, one of the authors connected one of the classes to the Moodle network, which allowed students to roam into associated classes. These scenarios will be described in more detail in the presentation.

 

Before commencing our pilot studies, it was anticipated from a literature review and previous university classroom observations (Yamauchi 2009; Stout 2010; Kikuchi & Otsuka 2008; Kiyota 2008; and Maeda 2009) that most students had limited computer experience (vis-à-vis cellphones), some had negative feelings about learning or using English, some were reluctant to engage in dialogue, and classrooms provided limited access to ICT. These observed attributes were thought to inhibit participation in online activities outside of the classroom.


This presentation summarizes three case studies using Moodle for out-of-class activities, and presents student performance data and feedback to discuss the relationship between the above limitations and the motivation of students to participate. In brief, features of learning technology, characteristics of instructional settings, appropriateness of student skill sets, attitudes toward language, and dispositions toward dialogic interaction may be implicated in student behavior. Based on these findings, suggestions will be made to overcome the above limitations and increase student engagement.  (249)

 

(Posted on January 29, 2011)

 

Presentation Slides

20110605_kurume_JALTCALL_Yamauchi_Uchida.pdf Download this file

(Updated on June 13, 2011)

 

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Tue, 08 Mar 2011 02:00:00 -0800 The 9th Asia TEFL International Conference July 27-29 http://conf.posterous.com/asia-tefl http://conf.posterous.com/asia-tefl
Asiatefl

Call for Presentations

  • Theme: Teaching English in a Changing Asia : Challenges and Directions
  • Dates: July 27-29, 2011
  • Venue: Hotel Seoul KyoYuk MunHwa HoeKwan, Seoul, Korea

Subtopics

  • Approaches and Methodologies 
  • Curriculum 
  • Distance Education 
  • Education / Language Policy 
  • International / Intercultural Communication 
  • Second Language Acquisition 
  • Materials Writing and Design 
  • Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles 
  • Teacher Education 
  • Teaching Young Learners 
  • Testing, Assessment, and Evaluation 
  • The Use of IT in Language Teaching 
  • Using Local Literatures in English or Translations for Teaching English

The abstract must not exceed 250 words, while the bio-data must not exceed 60 words. 

Deadline for Proposal Submission: February 10, 2011

(January 03, 2011 at  7:00 PM)

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Proposal Abstract (Yamauchi & Uchida) 

The influence of L1 syntactic patterns on Japanese EFL learners’ Interlanguage grammar This presentation is a part of our 4-year research study (2010-2013, supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research: 22520573) that aims to (i) identify and describe major features of Japanese EFL learners’ interlanguage grammar at an earlier stage in development, focusing primarily on errors possibly influenced by the L1 syntax, and (ii) develop a practicable way for language teachers to progressively build learner corpus using data from their own classes.

During the 2010 fall semester, the authors set up several writing tasks for their classes using Moodle, and the students performed the tasks online outside of the classroom. The focus of this presentation is on common errors that have been identified so far in the students’ writing that strongly suggest the influence of Japanese syntactic patterns, including: (a) mapping a topic-comment construction in Japanese to a subject-predicate construction, which is likely to be linked to the use of a be-verb like Japanese topic marker wa; (b) omission of refernce to known information, where zero anaphora is expected in Japanese; and (c) confusion of predicate-argument relations, especially with psychological predicates.

The observation and analysis of the initial set of learners’ writing data suggest that seemingly diffferent grammatical errors may be derived from a common feature of interlanguage grammar. A further elaborated short list of such interlangauge features will help the teacher to effectively promote learners’ noticing of their problems and restructuring their interlanguage grammars.

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Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:16:00 -0800 Moodle Moot Japan 2011 - 2月22日~23日 http://conf.posterous.com/moodle-moot-japan-2011 http://conf.posterous.com/moodle-moot-japan-2011
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via moodlejapan.org
第3回 Moodleの教育者と開発者による研修会
2011年 2月22日(09:30-17:30)~23日(09:00-16:00)
高知工科大学
発表:英語を「使いながら学ぶ」ためのForum活用 
非英語専攻の日本人大学生の多くは授業外で英語を使う機会をほとんどもたない。週1回、授業で英語を勉強するだけでは、英語力向上だけでなく、英語を「伝達手段」として認識することも難しい。この状況を改善するために、MoodleのForum を含めオンラインでの英語使用機会の提供は非常に有望である。また、発表で取り上げるように、Forum の利用により、間違いを恐れて中間言語使用をためらう学生たちに、個々の間違いを訂正することなくFocus on Form を促すフィードバックが容易になる。
Forum 中心のMoodleコースの作成自体は容易であるが、普通教室での授業における課外活動にForumを利用する場合には、Moodle利用法の周知とForum活動の設計の面などで工夫が必要である。本発表では、これらの工夫の実践例として、Forum を利用した英語活動を充実させるためのスキル(オンライン辞書・ハイパーリンク・画像などの利用も含む)の段階的な導入、授業と連携させたForum活動例(授業前の協同予習・授業後の発展学習)、Moodle Networkを利用した学校間交流プロジェクトについて報告する。
Moodle Forums for helping students learn English by using it
Many non-English majors in Japanese universities have few opportunities to use English outside of the classroom. It is difficult for those who only study English once a week in class to improve their English, or even to recognize it as a means of communication. To make up for this disadvantage in the EFL environment, it can be quite helpful to provide opportunities to use English online, including discussions using Moodle forums. Using discussion forums also allows the teacher to easily give focus-on-form oriented feedback without correcting every error they make.
Although it's fairly easy to set up a Moodle course to mainly provide forum activities, if the F2F class meets in a traditional classroom and not all students regularly use a computer at home, some considerations are necessary regarding how to familiarize students with using Moodle and how to design forum activities. This presentation reports some of the author’s attempts to facilitate and encourage students to use Moodle forums outside of the class, including a step-by-step introduction to skills that will help them communicate in English online, forum activities directly related to in-class activities, and an intercollege project using Moodle Network.

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Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:43:00 -0800 Eurocall 2011, Nottingham, England 31st August - 3rd September http://conf.posterous.com/eurocall-2011 http://conf.posterous.com/eurocall-2011
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(Invited to take part in a joint presentation on an Interschool project using Moodle Network.) 

Proposal Abstract

Interschool Collaborative Activities Using a Customized Moodle Network

Harashima, Kanda, Sato & Yamauchi 

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, recently wrote concerning thriving social-networking services, “Each site is a silo, walled off from the others,” (2010, p.2) and expressed his concerns about the closed nature of online community sites. This concern very much applies to the communities developed inside Learning Management Systems (LMSs). The inhabitants at one LMS site hardly ever communicate or collaborate with those living in other LMS sites, because each LMS world is closed and the service is strictly limited to its registered users. We have thought it regrettable, and hoped for some ways to allow users of different LMSs, both teachers and students, to share ideas, materials, quizzes, resources, and tasks among themselves.

Moodle is a very popular open-source LMS. With version 1.8 Moodle has incorporated a networking function through which different instances of Moodle can be connected with each other and the students at each Moodle site can move to other Moodle sites without signing off. Although this Moodle Networking function, or M-net, provides a very promising way for teachers to share resources and for students to communicate and collaborate with remote partners, little has been studied concerning the practical merit of using M-net for collaborative learning.

The authors set out to conduct an experiment on setting up M-net between servers at different locations in 2009. After establishing and testing the M-net, we began to engage our students in a number of interschool collaborative activities.

The first semester we implemented three activities: Exchange Forum, where students from three different schools gathered on M-net and exchanged opinions on current issues; TOEIC Reading Quizzes, where students remotely accessed and solved TOEIC-style quizzes; and Collaborative Database, where students from remote Moodle sites put their efforts together and created a database of the world’s most influential people.

After the semester, we realized upon reflection that each remote user was not easily identified as to which school/Moodle site he or she represented. This led us to have the M-net customized by a programmer so that each remote user could get color coding, which enabled users to visually distinguish each remote user according to school or site.

With this modification we introduced Interschool Discussion in the second semester using M-net, where students engaged in debate-like structured discussions on some controversial social issues. 124 students from four different universities exchanged heated discussions over M-net, being fully aware who was coming from which Moodle site this time. Toward the end of the activity we conducted a questionnaire. The results revealed some interesting insights into the differences between face-to-face and online discussion types, students’ sentiment toward remote discussion partners, the effectiveness of M-net and its customization, and the significance of being connected to learners whom they would never see in real life. In this presentation we will report our analyses and findings concerning the data we collected.

Works Cited

Berners-Lee, T. (2010). Long live the Web: A call for continued open standards and neutrality. Scientific American. Online. Retrieved on Feb. 3, 2011 from http:// www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=long-live-the-web

Presentation Slides (PDF)
Eurocall2011final-2.pdf Download this file

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Mon, 03 Jan 2011 10:04:00 -0800 UCL - Learner Corpus Research 2011 :15-17 September 2011 http://conf.posterous.com/ucl-learner-corpus-research-2011 http://conf.posterous.com/ucl-learner-corpus-research-2011
Learner Corpus Research 2011

To mark the 20th anniversary of its creation, the Centre for English Corpus Linguistics of the University of Louvain is organizing a conference entitled “20 years of learner corpus research: looking back, moving ahead” in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) on 15-17 September 2011.

Conference themes

We particularly welcome papers that address the relevance of learner corpus research to:

Cognitive linguistics
Discourse studies
(e-)lexicography
Grammar and syntax
Language for academic/specific purposes
Language varieties
Lexicology and phraseology
Natural language processing
Second language acquisition
Second/foreign language teaching

The conference will also feature three thematic sessions, for which submissions are invited.

1. Language for Specific Purposes Learner Corpora (convenor: Magali Paquot)
The “Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) Learner Corpora” thematic session aims to bring together researchers that are particularly interested in the collection, annotation and analysis of LSP learner corpora and their practical applications.

2. Learner Corpora and Cognitivism (convenor: Fanny Meunier)
The “Learner Corpora and Cognitivism” thematic session aims to bring together researchers working with learner corpora (either as their main source of data or in combination with other data types) to help account for cognitive processes at play in second language acquisition.

3. Learner Corpora and World Englishes (convenor: Gaëtanelle Gilquin)
The aim of the “Learner Corpora and World Englishes” thematic session is to bring the fields of SLA and World Englishes one step closer to each other by examining the possible links and synergies between Learner Englishes and indigenised varieties of English, as they emerge from corpora.

 

Proposal Abstract (Uchida & Yamauchi)

Small-scale building of learner corpora for study of syntactic errors made by Japanese learners of English

Our four-year research project, which is supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, aims at improving the writing ability of Japanese learners of English. The research focus of the project is on cross-linguistic influence in language learning, specifically syntactic transfer from Japanese to English, which is behind errors in learners’ interlanguages. By pointing out major syntactic traits commonly found in the production of learners, we aim to shortlist the problems caused by negative transfer that need to be addressed in college/university classrooms with urgency.

At middle-level colleges and universities in Japan, the average proficiency level of students is considerably lower than that of learners whose production data comprise the major learner corpora such as ICLE (Université Catholique de Louvain) and NICE (Nagoya University). This means that those corpora are not necessarily the right materials for the research performed in the purpose of improving proficiency of the majority of the Japanese college/university students. Rather, "personalised" corpora, consisting of data produced by special sets of learners, e.g., the students enrolled in a given course, should be collected and examined.

During the 2010 autumn semester, we set up several writing tasks for our classes using Moodle, and the students performed the tasks online outside of the classroom. The primary purpose of this pilot study was to collect data, but at the same time we intended to design our writing tasks to help motivate the students to use English online for communicative purposes and keep them engaged in productive activities, which was expected to be challenging for reasons discussed below.

This presentation will specifically address this latter issue. It will answer the following research questions: (1) How we can encourage students to get online and participate? (2) What types of topics are preferable for the learners? (3) How can feedback from the peers and teachers help to keep the activities going? These issues are significant especially in the context of teaching EFL to Japanese learners, since in Japan many non-English majors in universities have few opportunities to use English outside the classroom. For most of them writing in English is nothing but an ordeal, and very few have experience emailing, texting or social networking using English. Another factor to be considered is their lack of familiarity with computers: it is not uncommon for students, especially in their first year, to have little previous experience using computers at home. Under such circumstances writing activities outside the classroom tend to be difficult to organise and therefore careful designing of activities is prerequisite.

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