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This article presents an analysis of tracking and survey data collected over eight years on 400 users of one of seven Icelandic Online (IOL) courses: IOL 2; an open online program in Icelandic as a...

This study examines the differential impact of tutor labeling vs. non-labeling approaches on the performance; motivation beliefs; and cognitive, social, and teaching presence of low-achieving students. Two interactive tutoring strategy patterns are investigated based on the taxonomical e-moderating model of Salmon. In addition, the tutees’ online learning behaviors and experiences and perceptions of e-tutoring interventions are explored. This study found that the variations in the tutors’ labeling intervention were not directly reflected either in the tutors’ tutoring strategies or moderating stages or in the tutees’ English performance, motivation beliefs (measured on eight subscales), or three types of presence. However, the labeling intervention increased the tutees’ motivation belief of self-efficacy. Implications for further research and the limitations of this investigation are discussed.

Construction grammar (CG) has been proposed as an adequate grammatical formalism for building intelligent language tutoring systems because it is highly compatible with the learning strategies observed in Second Language Learning. Unfortunately, the lack of computational CG implementations has made it impossible in the past to corroborate these proposals with actual language tutoring prototypes. However, recent advances in Fluid Construction Grammar (FCG) now offer exciting new ways of operationalizing robust and open-ended language processing within a construction grammar approach. This paper demonstrates its adequacy for CALL applications through a case study on error diagnosis in the domain of Spanish tense, aspect and modal morphology. The performance of the FCG tutor is tested on the Spanish Learner Language Oral Corpus (SPLOCC 2). This first FCG Spanish error diagnostic prototype achieves an accuracy of 70% on a total of 500 conjugation errors in four oral tasks carried out by 20 low intermediate and 20advanced English learners of Spanish. Follow- up experiments will test this prototype on larger learner corpora of differing proficiency levels.

This article describes the rationale for pedagogical, technological and organisational choices in the design of a virtual learning environment (VLE) for an upper-intermediate Spanish course with regard to the roles of participants (tutors, moderators and learners). We report on findings from a preliminary evaluation of the interaction between the different actors and this space, using quantitative and qualitative data obtained from interviews, questionnaires and analysis of usage logs. We look at the tensions that emerge as tutors and learners adopt new roles and engage in new pedagogical relationships around the opportunities afforded by this kind of teaching and learning space. We argue that our attempt to promote interaction through our VLE model has resulted in a contested space where traditional hierarchies and relationships between tutors and learners are in a state of flux and where new hierarchies and relationships are constantly being forged. Finally we explore new ways in which tutors’ roles mig...

International audience; This study explores how second generation tutors within blended learning courses link the face-to-face and online course modalities - in their representations as well as through their pedagogical activities - and which aspects help them to feel involved in the course. The methodology used is a qualitative analysis of interviews with seven tutors of three different blended learning courses. The results show that most tutors indeed had difficulties gaining a deeper insight into the course design: they considered the face-to-face modality to be the central one, just as in a traditional L2 course (whereas course design was centred on the online modality), and therefore rarely played their role as online tutors. Moreover, their understanding of the courses' task-based approach appeared to be limited. Nevertheless, the majority of the tutors managed to feel involved in the course, which shows the importance of additional factors in defining their relationship to the course. We identified eight other factors, which are partly due to the intense use of ICT within the course (as shown by a comparison with two additional interviews with e-learning-tutors), and partly depend specifically on the blended learning mode. This study furthers our understanding of difficulties tutors can have and what support they require within blended language learning settings, although further research will be needed in order to permit greater generalisation.

Mobile learning has long been identified as one of the natural directions in which CALL is expected to move, and as smaller portable technologies become less expensive, lighter and more powerful, they have the potential to become a more integral part of language learning courses as opposed to the more supplemental role often assigned to computer labs. Mobile phones have been the topic of a number of recent studies, including for learning pragmatic phrases via mobile email, and as electronic flash cards. With the development of mobile systems that can access the Internet, more sophisticated applications which allow the use of databases and interactive web content have been made possible. The current study describes one such application, investigating the use of a prototype mobile-based intelligent vocabulary tutor system by learners in an advanced EFL class. Learners used the tutor to complete vocabulary activities in a variety of task formats through either their mobile phone or through a computer, and th...

The aim of this paper is to summarise how pronunciation feedback on the phoneme level should be given in computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) in order to be effective. The study contains a literature survey of feedback in the language classroom, interviews with language teachers and their students about their attitudes towards pronunciation feedback, and observations of how feedback is given in their classrooms. The study was carried out using focus group meetings, individual semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. The feedback strategies that were advocated and observed in the study on pronunciation feedback from human teachers were implemented in a computer-animated language tutor giving articulation feedback. The virtual tutor was subsequently tested in a user trial and evaluated with a questionnaire. The article proposes several feedback strategies that would improve the pedagogical soundness of CAPT systems.

While interaction in online language learning in the area of written computer-mediated communication is well researched, studies focusing on interaction in synchronous online audio environments remain scarce. For this reason, this paper seeks to map the nature and level of interpersonal interaction in both online and the face-to-face language tutorials used at the Open University, UK. A coding system for mapping interaction against the tenets of SLA is proposed and applied to sample tutorials. Initial analyses of data reveal differences with regards to the level of student participation, the use of the target language (L2) and the degree of tutor control and focus.

Since the inception of computer assisted language learning (CALL), computers have been successfully used to provide leaning and assessment opportunities for groups or individual learners. This article describes a use of computer that is fundamentally different to most CALL approaches, and yet contributes to language learning. While presenting a case study conducted in higher education in the Gulf of Arabia, the paper builds a strong case for computer assisted vocabulary profiling as a means of objective needs analysis and language program evaluation. This approach is based on a lexical comparison of learner corpora with the corpora of teaching resources. The software used for this purpose is The Compleat Lexical Tutor.

While online teaching in post-compulsory education is the focus of much research today, the training of online tutors has largely been neglected. Most papers do not go beyond dealing with the technical skills that are needed to teach in an online environment. This article outlines a framework for tutor training, starting with a brief overview of benefits and challenges for online language tutors. On the basis of several years' experience with teaching languages using a synchronous online environment and training tutors for online language courses, we suggest a pyramid of skills necessary for successful online teaching. These include the more general skills of dealing with the technology and using its advantages, the social skills of community building, language teaching skills, and the skills to teach creatively and develop a personal teaching style in an online medium. The article then suggests how these skills can be implemented in a training programme, which includes both pre-course training and ongoin...

This paper assesses the efficiency of the 'Learning Russian on the Web' CALL course, developed at the University of Sussex and the London School of Economics. The program, designed for intermediate and advanced students, was incorporated into the curricula of both universities. Sussex intermediate level students used this web-based tool in the classroom, under the teacher's guidance. The paper focuses on the progress of the course and outlines various tutor- and student-led activities. It summarises tutor and student feedback, reveals general problems related to the use of the learning package and discusses possible solutions. The tutors at LSE offered the newly designed program for self-study as a separate module in the curriculum. To examine its effectiveness the tutors (a) assessed students' linguistic skills before and after the course; and (b) obtained student feedback on the course. Their main objectives were to record the students' evaluation of the development of their language skills, to account ...

This paper describes the Tutor Assistant, an authoring tool for an Intelligent Language Tutoring systems (ILTS) for English as a Second Language (ESL). The common goal of authoring tools for ITSs is to reduce the costs in expertise and time that is required to produce a usable intelligent learning environment. The Tutor Assistant is designed to be usable by language instructions with little of no experience of ILTSs and ILTS authoring tools. This paper reports on a recent study which evaluates the degree to which typical users of our system can author good quality content for an ILTS and establishes benchmarks for development times.

In this study we look at online tutor strategies for the support of students learning a second language with the help of a Web-based asynchronous textual conference. Our previous research has shown us that in such a conference environment, communicative activities can be mixed with reflective tasks, where students are encouraged to exchange reflections on the language being studied, and on their own learning experience. While we have found that such a mix can be beneficial for language learning, nevertheless there are further efforts to be made in persuading learners to integrate linguistic task completion with reflective work, in an interactive mode. Online tutors have an important role to play in furthering this aim, and in this study we look at the strategies used by three tutors who participated in a project with students of French at the Open University in 1998. First we propose a categorisation - according to message-type - of interactions found in the project's three conferences. Then we compare interactions in the three groups and, based on the pattern and content of tutor intervention, we distinguish between two main tutorial styles, which we associate with two different types of student behaviour, one more oriented towards communication, and the other more reflective. We conclude by suggesting ways in which tutors could support online learners in trying to integrate those learning approaches more closely.

The Military Language Tutor (MILT) is a language tutor authoring system developed by the U.S. Army Research Institute (ARI). MILT gives authors the ability to develop tutoring programs with various functional capabilities, including natural language processing (NLP), two-dimensional, animated, microworld simulation, performance-based, instructional branching, presentation of most conventional types of questions and feedback, etc. Currently it contains two relatively elaborate and usable examples of lessonware on which authors can build — one in Arabic and the other in Spanish. Based on the interest of the Special Operations forces (SOF), we developed a proof of principal version of MILT's two-dimensional Arabic microworld which uses speech rather than keyboard input to control an animated agent in solving an authored problem. The speech is recognized using a Dragon discrete speech recognizer utilizing a relatively small modern standard Arabic speech model. It is this speech-driven microworld that was the ...

The use of multimedia tutors for learning abstract concepts is one means by which students can experience difficult‐to‐simulate situations, often as adjuncts to other forms of instruction. This is particularly useful for developing mental models of phenomena. Another advantage to the use of such tutors is that a student can participate in individually tailored instruction that responds to his or her specific error patterns, misconceptions and learning styles. However, in designing tutorials that respond to individual learning styles, an examination of the relationship between learning styles and performance on tutorials in various scientific disciplines and for different levels of students is needed. This step precedes the development of intelligent tutors that actually respond to individual learning styles (i.e., strategies responsive to particular learning styles are built into the program).

The Audio Interactive Tutor (TAIT) is an interactive audio/oral computer‐assisted study device. TAIT's output consists of explanations and examples along with commands and questions requiring responses from the user. TAIT uses speech recognition to determine the responses made by the user and constructs an evolving model of what the user knows. TAIT uses the model to direct the course of further interaction so as to support an efficient approach to study that relies on sparse repetition carefully spread over time, rather than copious repetition. A prime application of TAIT is second language instruction.

In this article, we set out to assess QuADEM (Quality Assessment of Digital Educational Material), one of the latest methods for evaluating online language learning courseware. What is special about QuADEM is that the evaluation is based on observing the actual usage of the online courseware and that, from a checklist of 12 different components, the evaluator is free to pick and choose one or more. In particular, we focus on the QuADEM evaluation of a module of the digital environment Deutsch-Uni Online (DUO) that aims at preparing B1/B2 students for a study semester in Germany. DUO is meant for self-study supported by an online tutor. For our assessment, we observed two respondents during their activities in the online learning module, using think-aloud protocol, video registration, and keystroke logging, and we conducted semistructured postintervention interviews with them. Zooming in on usability, we found that this QuADEM component lacks assessment criteria regarding feedback and task design, both of which turned out to play an important motivational role in our assessment. While both could be added to the QuADEM usability dimension under the denomination didactic usability, we suggest that it might be worth reconsidering QuADEMs pick-and-choose approach.